In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.
Back when I was my late teens, my daily commute was on an express bus. It was perpetually full and was consistently completely full when I boarded.
During a certain commute, I began feeling incredibly sick as the bus lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres so the bus could reached where I needed to get off, and then I could rush hurriedly for the nearest public restroom to be sick.
We were coming down the road leading to the stop when I understood I wasn’t going to make it. In an instant, it was like a veil came over me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; similar to when one muted everything. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.
Thankfully, I was positioned toward the front inside the vehicle, so I managed several steps to ask the driver and requested that the driver to pull over, explaining to him I needed to get ill. The driver opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.
I was resolved to not get sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to walk across to the park across the road, where I believed it would allow me to discreetly hide near some foliage to be sick. Yet I apparently blacked out. I was aware of my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see clearly, leading me to start dragging myself toward the park.
“Everything alright, love?”
Right then, someone picked me up. There was a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I needed to vomit. Thus, he practically supported my weight into an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He inquired if I needed him to remain with me but I said no.
Not long after, I felt better to the point of sitting down and from the other side of the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to rise right away but I was able to say thank you and after a few more minutes was able to move my feet. I returned home and spent the following days recovering from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never saw that man’s face – merely his legs and a large container for tools he held – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was completely helpless.
Frequently, society has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that protective shell. He demonstrated that our default setting is towards kindness, something I love about humanity.
