Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.

At the age of 19 years old, my morning travel involved an express bus. It remained crowded and invariably became standing room only once I stepped aboard.

One particular morning, I started experiencing quite nauseous as the bus lurched around every turn. I kept telling myself to hold on for a few more stops so the bus could reached where I needed to get off, so I could then sprint quickly to the closest public restroom to be sick.

We were coming down the road leading to my stop and I understood I was unable to last. All of a sudden, it felt as if a veil came over me. My vision turned white and really quiet; as if someone cut the sound. I thought, “I am about to pass out”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver of the bus, so I managed a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, explaining to him that I was about to vomit. The driver opened the entrance and I weakly exited out onto the street.

My intention was to not get sick before six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and endeavored to stumble across to the park opposite the street, where I believed it would allow me to find some privacy among some shrubs to be sick. Yet I apparently blacked out. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see properly, leading me to start dragging myself toward my intended destination.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I had to to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost helped me walk down into a nearby building and placed me into the female bathroom. He inquired if I needed him to wait for me but I refused.

A few minutes later, I regained my composure enough to sit down and from outside the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to get up at that moment but did manage to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes regained the function of my limbs. I made my way home and spent the next few days getting over what turned out to be a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half along with a sizable metal toolbox he held – but he saved me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Frequently, society can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, something I love about humanity.