In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

At the age of nineteenth year, my morning travel was on an packed public transport. The vehicle was always jammed and invariably became completely full once I stepped aboard.

One particular morning, I began feeling quite nauseous as the bus lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on for a few more stops before the bus arrived at where I needed to get off, at which point I could sprint quickly to the closest public restroom to throw up.

As we neared the street towards the destination as I understood I would not be to hold on. In an instant, it seemed a curtain fell over me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; like someone had muted everything. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned near the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a couple of steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, telling him I was going to vomit. He opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

My intention was to avoid being sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and started trying to walk toward the green space across the road, where I thought it would allow me to discreetly hide among some shrubs to be sick. But then I apparently lost consciousness. I could feel my physical self, yet I was unable to walk or see properly, leading me to start crawling towards the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

In that instant, someone picked me up. There was an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I had to to vomit. Thus, he practically carried me over to an adjacent building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired if I needed him to wait for me but I said no.

After a short while, I felt better sufficiently to sit down and from the other side of the door I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to get up at that moment but I did succeed to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my limbs. I returned home and spent the next few days getting over what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.

I never saw that man’s face – just his lower half and a large metal toolbox he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was completely helpless.

Frequently, society can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a trait I cherish in other people.