I Was So Ill Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Restroom.

Back when I was nineteenth year, my regular journey to work meant taking an packed public transport. It remained jammed and was consistently standing room only once I got on.

On one specific day, I was feeling terribly ill as the bus swayed around the bends. I kept telling myself to hold on for a few more stops until the bus got to my stop, so I could then sprint quickly to the closest public toilet to vomit.

The bus was approaching the avenue close to the stop when I understood I wasn’t going to hold on. In an instant, it seemed a curtain fell over me. My vision turned white and really quiet; as if someone turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Thankfully, I was positioned near the front of the bus, so I managed several steps forward and told the operator to pull over, telling him I was going to be sick. He opened the entrance and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.

I was determined to not get sick in view of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble toward the green space opposite the street, where I thought it would allow me to find some privacy behind a bush to vomit. However I likely lost consciousness. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I began dragging myself toward the park.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I told this unknown man that I required to vomit. Thus, he practically carried me over to a nearby building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired whether I required him to stay with me but I said no.

Not long after, I regained my composure enough to sit down and from the other side of the door I heard him inquire, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to get up just then but I was able to thank him and shortly thereafter recovered the use of my limbs. I got myself home and then spent the following days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I did not see the stranger’s face – merely his legs and a large steelwork tools container he held – but he saved me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, something I love about my fellow humans.