Feeling So Sick I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.

During my my late teens, my regular journey to work involved an express bus. It was perpetually full and invariably became standing room only once I boarded.

One particular morning, I started experiencing quite nauseous while the vehicle rocked around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres so the bus could arrived at my stop, so I could then make a mad dash toward the most convenient public restroom to vomit.

We were coming down the street towards the destination as I realised I wasn’t going to hold on. Suddenly, it felt as if a fog descended upon me. The world became hazy and muffled; similar to when one muted everything. I said to myself, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was near the front on the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps toward the driver and told the operator to pull over, informing him that I was about to be sick. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

I was resolved not to vomit in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and began attempting to make my way to the park across the road, where I believed I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to throw up. Yet I must have fainted. I was aware of my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see properly, so I started inching my way to the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

Right then, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to be sick. So he virtually supported my weight into an adjacent building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me whether I required him to wait for me but I said no.

After a short while, I had recovered sufficiently to sit on the toilet when from beyond the door I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to rise right away but I did succeed to thank him and shortly thereafter was able to move my limbs. I returned home and then spent several days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never glimpsed that man’s face – just his lower half and a large container for tools he was carrying – but he saved me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Frequently, society tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that emotional callousness. He demonstrated that our default setting leans toward compassion, something I love about my fellow humans.