In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible When a Man Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.
During my my late teens, my regular journey to work involved an express bus. It was perpetually jammed and would always be completely full by the time I stepped aboard.
During a certain commute, I began feeling terribly ill when the coach lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to persevere just a little longer until the bus got to my stop, so I could then make a mad dash for the nearest public toilet to throw up.
We were coming down the avenue close to the stop when I realised I was unable to last. Suddenly, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. The world became white and really quiet; like someone had turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.
Thankfully, I was positioned near the front on the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to stop, telling him I needed to vomit. He promptly opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.
My intention was to avoid being sick in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I forced myself up and started trying to stumble across to the park across the road, thinking I could I could at least find some privacy near some foliage to be sick. Yet I likely lost consciousness. I was aware of my limbs, but walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, so I began dragging myself toward my intended destination.
“Everything alright, love?”
Right then, I got scooped up. I sensed someone holding me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I told this mysterious stranger that I required to be sick. Thus, he practically helped me walk down into an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He inquired if I wanted him to wait for me but I declined.
A few minutes later, I regained my composure enough to sit down when from beyond the door I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to rise at that moment but did manage to thank him and following a brief period recovered the use of my legs. I returned home passing the following days getting over what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.
I never saw the stranger’s face – only his legs and the big metal toolbox he had with him – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world has a way of making you guarded, hostile, and combative. His was the sort of gesture that melts away that emotional callousness. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.