In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.
Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. It was perpetually full and would always be without any seats when I stepped aboard.
One particular morning, I was feeling incredibly sick when the coach lurched around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to endure just a little longer before the bus reached my stop, so I could then sprint quickly for the nearest washroom to vomit.
The bus was approaching the road leading to the destination as I understood I wasn’t going to hold on. In an instant, it felt as if a veil came over me. My vision turned blank and silent; like someone had muted everything. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Fortunately, I stood toward the front on the bus, so I managed a couple of steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, telling him I needed to be sick. He opened the doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.
I was resolved not to vomit in view of multiple lanes of cars, so I forced myself up and endeavored to make my way toward the green space opposite the street, where I believed I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to vomit. Yet I must have lost consciousness. I could feel my physical self, yet I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I started crawling towards the park.
“You right, love?”
At that moment, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I had to to be sick. So he virtually supported my weight over to a nearby building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know whether I required him to wait for me but I said no.
After a short while, I felt better to the point of sitting on the toilet when from beyond the door came his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I could not to rise right away but did manage to express my gratitude and following a brief period regained the function of my limbs. I returned home and then spent the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.
I never glimpsed his features – merely his legs and a large container for tools he was carrying – but he saved me, when I was completely helpless.
Often this world has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, something I love about my fellow humans.
