In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Essentially Lifted Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work involved an crowded coach. It remained jammed and was consistently without any seats by the time I boarded.

During a certain commute, I began feeling incredibly sick when the coach rocked around the bends. I kept telling myself to hold on just a little longer until the bus reached my destination, at which point I could make a mad dash toward the most convenient public toilet to be sick.

We were coming down the avenue close to the destination as I realised I wasn’t going to make it. All of a sudden, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. The world became blank and silent; like someone had cut the sound. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.

Luckily I was toward the front of the bus, so I managed a few steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to stop, explaining to him I was going to vomit. The driver opened the doors and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.

I was determined to not get sick in front of six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and began attempting to stumble toward the green space opposite the street, thinking I could I’d at least be able to find some privacy behind a bush to vomit. Yet I likely blacked out. I could feel my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I began dragging myself toward the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

Right then, someone picked me up. There was an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the mysterious stranger that I had to to be sick. Thus, he practically helped me walk over to a close-by structure and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired if I wanted him to wait for me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the restroom floor when from beyond the stall I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to rise at that moment but I did succeed to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes regained the function of my legs. I got myself home and then spent the next few days recovering from what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never glimpsed that man’s face – only his legs along with a sizable container for tools he was carrying – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.

Often this world tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.