I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Essentially Lifted Me to the Toilets.
During my nineteenth year, my regular journey to work was on an express bus. It was perpetually jammed and was consistently standing room only when I stepped aboard.
One particular morning, I began feeling terribly ill when the coach rocked around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus reached where I needed to get off, at which point I could make a mad dash to the closest public restroom to throw up.
As we neared the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. In an instant, it seemed a veil came over me. Everything just went blank and silent; like someone had muted everything. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.
Luckily I was near the front on the bus, so I managed a couple of steps toward the driver and told the operator to pull over, explaining to him I needed to be sick. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.
I was resolved not to vomit in view of a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and began attempting to stumble to the park on the other side, where I believed it would allow me to find some privacy among some shrubs to throw up. Yet I likely fainted. I was aware of my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see clearly, leading me to start dragging myself toward the grassy area.
“You right, love?”
In that instant, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the mysterious stranger that I had to to get to a bathroom. So he virtually supported my weight into a nearby building and put me into the female bathroom. He inquired whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.
After a short while, I regained my composure enough to sit down when from beyond the stall I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I wasn’t able to rise just then but did manage to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter regained the function of my feet. I made my way home and spent the next few days getting over which was a severe stomach virus.
I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – just his lower half and a large steelwork tools container he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.
Frequently, society tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that protective shell. He demonstrated that our default setting leans toward compassion, a quality I adore about humanity.
