In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Bathroom.

During my nineteenth year, my regular journey to work was on an express bus. It was perpetually jammed and would always be standing room only when I got on.

On one specific day, I began feeling incredibly sick as the bus lurched around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to hold on for a few more stops before the bus arrived at my stop, and then I could make a mad dash to the closest public toilet to vomit.

We were coming down the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it was like a veil came over me. The world became hazy and muffled; like someone had muted everything. I said to myself, “I will lose consciousness”.

Luckily I was toward the front of the bus, so I took a few steps to ask the driver and told the operator to stop, explaining to him I was going to get ill. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

I was determined not to vomit before six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and endeavored to stumble to the park on the other side, where I thought I’d at least be able to discreetly hide near some foliage to throw up. However I likely lost consciousness. I was aware of my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I started dragging myself toward the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

In that instant, someone picked me up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I had to to vomit. So he virtually helped me walk into an adjacent building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

A few minutes later, I had recovered sufficiently to sit down and from outside the stall I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to stand up just then but I was able to thank him and after a few more minutes was able to move my limbs. I made my way home and then spent several days getting over which was a severe stomach virus.

I never saw his features – just his lower half and the big container for tools he had with him – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Frequently, society can make you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that emotional callousness. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a quality I adore about humanity.