Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Bathroom.

Back when I was my late teens, my daily commute involved an express bus. It remained jammed and was consistently completely full once I got on.

On one specific day, I was feeling quite nauseous while the vehicle rocked around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to hold on another few kilometres so the bus could reached my stop, so I could then sprint quickly for the nearest washroom to vomit.

We were coming down the street towards my stop and I realised I would not be to make it. All of a sudden, it seemed a fog descended upon me. My vision turned blank and silent; as if someone turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front on the bus, so I managed several steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, informing him that I was about to vomit. He promptly opened the doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

I was resolved to not get sick in view of multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and endeavored to make my way toward the green space opposite the street, where I believed it would allow me to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to be sick. However I must have fainted. I was aware of my body but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I started crawling towards my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I had to to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me down into an adjacent building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He wanted to know whether I required him to remain with me but I refused.

A few minutes later, I felt better enough to sit down and from the other side of the stall I heard his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to stand up right away but I did succeed to say thank you and shortly thereafter was able to move my limbs. I made my way home and spent the following days healing from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I did not see that man’s face – just his lower half and the big container for tools he was carrying – yet he rescued me, when I was completely helpless.

Frequently, society tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that our default setting is towards kindness, something I love about humanity.