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

At the age of my late teens, my daily commute involved an packed public transport. The vehicle was always full and would always be standing room only once I boarded.

On one specific day, I began feeling quite nauseous when the coach lurched around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to persevere just a little longer so the bus could got to where I needed to get off, at which point I could make a mad dash toward the most convenient washroom to throw up.

As we neared the street towards my stop and I understood I was unable to make it. In an instant, it was like a curtain fell over me. Everything just went blank and silent; like someone had muted everything. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver on the bus, so I managed a couple of steps forward and requested that the driver to stop, explaining to him I needed to get ill. He opened the entrance and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.

My intention was not to vomit in view of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and started trying to make my way toward the green space opposite the street, where I thought I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to throw up. However I likely blacked out. I sensed my body but walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, leading me to start dragging myself toward my intended destination.

“Are you okay, dear?”

In that instant, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically supported my weight down into an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He asked me if I wanted him to remain with me but I refused.

Not long after, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the restroom floor when from beyond the door came his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Is there anything you require?” I was incapable to stand up just then but I did succeed to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter recovered the use of my feet. I made my way home and then spent the following days healing from which was a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw his features – just his lower half and the big metal toolbox he was carrying – but he helped me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.

Often this world tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, something I love about my fellow humans.