In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

At the age of nineteenth year, my morning travel involved an express bus. The vehicle was always crowded and was consistently standing room only when I boarded.

One particular morning, I started experiencing terribly ill while the vehicle rocked around the bends. I kept telling myself to endure just a little longer so the bus could reached my stop, at which point I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient washroom to vomit.

As we neared the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. All of a sudden, it was like a curtain fell over me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; as if someone muted everything. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was close to the driver inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a couple of steps forward and requested that the driver to pull over, telling him I needed to be sick. The driver opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.

I was resolved not to vomit before multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and started trying to stumble toward the green space opposite the street, where I believed it would allow me to find some privacy among some shrubs to throw up. But then I likely fainted. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I started inching my way to the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. There was a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I told this unknown man that I required to be sick. Thus, he practically supported my weight over to a nearby building and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired if I needed him to stay with me but I refused.

Not long after, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the toilet and from outside the door I heard him inquire, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to stand up right away but did manage to say thank you and following a brief period recovered the use of my legs. I got myself home and then spent the next few days healing from which was a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw his features – merely his legs and a large container for tools he was carrying – but he helped me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Frequently, society tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that hardening of the heart. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, a trait I cherish in other people.