I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to a Bathroom.

At the age of my late teens, my regular journey to work was on an crowded coach. It remained crowded and was consistently standing room only when I boarded.

During a certain commute, I was feeling quite nauseous while the vehicle lurched around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to hold on just a little longer before the bus arrived at my destination, at which point I could rush hurriedly to the closest public restroom to be sick.

We were coming down the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I was unable to last. In an instant, it seemed a veil came over me. The world became blank and silent; like someone had muted everything. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was toward the front inside the vehicle, so I took a few steps forward and asked the driver to pull over, telling him I was going to vomit. The driver opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.

My intention was to avoid being sick in view of multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble toward the green space across the road, thinking I could I could at least discreetly hide behind a bush to throw up. Yet I must have lost consciousness. I sensed my body but walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, so I started inching my way to my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. There was a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this unknown man that I needed to vomit. Thus, he practically supported my weight into an adjacent building and placed me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know if I wanted him to remain with me but I said no.

After a short while, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the toilet and from the other side of the door came him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to get up at that moment but did manage to thank him and shortly thereafter was able to move my legs. I returned home passing the following days healing from what turned out to be a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw his features – just his lower half and a large steelwork tools container he held – but he helped me, at a moment I was completely helpless.

Often this world can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that people’s natural inclination is towards kindness, something I love in other people.