In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk When a Man Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

During my nineteenth year, my morning travel meant taking an express bus. It remained jammed and would always be without any seats once I got on.

On one specific day, I started experiencing terribly ill when the coach lurched around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to persevere for a few more stops until the bus arrived at my destination, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest washroom to throw up.

As we neared the road leading to the destination as I realised I was unable to make it. All of a sudden, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; as if someone muted everything. I thought, “I am about to pass out”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front on the bus, so I took a few steps forward and told the operator to stop, explaining to him I was going to vomit. He opened the doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

I was determined to not get sick before multiple lanes of cars, so I picked myself up and began attempting to make my way across to the park on the other side, thinking I could I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to be sick. But then I must have fainted. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I began inching my way to my intended destination.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. There was an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I needed to get to a bathroom. So he virtually carried me into a close-by structure and guided me into the female bathroom. He asked me if I needed him to remain with me but I refused.

Not long after, I felt better sufficiently to sit on the toilet and from outside the stall I heard him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Is there anything you require?” I was incapable to stand up right away but I was able to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my legs. I got myself home passing the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never saw that man’s face – merely his legs and the big container for tools he had with him – but he saved me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that emotional callousness. He demonstrated that our default setting is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.