In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.
Back when I was my late teens, my daily commute meant taking an packed public transport. The vehicle was always full and was consistently standing room only when I boarded.
On one specific day, I started experiencing terribly ill while the vehicle lurched around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to hold on just a little longer until the bus arrived at my destination, at which point I could sprint quickly for the nearest washroom to vomit.
The bus was approaching the road leading to the destination as it dawned on me I was unable to hold on. Suddenly, it was like a veil came over me. My vision turned blank and silent; similar to when one cut the sound. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.
Luckily I was close to the driver inside the vehicle, so I managed a couple of steps forward and asked the driver to open the doors, informing him that I was about to be sick. The driver opened the entrance and I weakly exited on to the pavement.
I was determined not to vomit in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I picked myself up and started trying to make my way across to the park opposite the street, where I believed I could at least find some privacy among some shrubs to be sick. Yet I must have fainted. I could feel my physical self, yet I was unable to walk or see clearly, so I started crawling towards the park.
“Everything alright, love?”
Right then, someone picked me up. There was a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “Are you okay, dear?” I told this unknown man that I required to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically supported my weight over to a nearby building and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired whether I required him to wait for me but I said no.
Not long after, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from outside the door I heard him inquire, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to rise just then but did manage to thank him and following a brief period was able to move my limbs. I got myself home passing the next few days healing from what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.
I did not see the stranger’s face – merely his legs along with a sizable steelwork tools container he had with him – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.
Frequently, society has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.