Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.
During my 19 years old, my daily commute was on an crowded coach. It remained full and was consistently standing room only when I got on.
One particular morning, I was feeling terribly ill while the vehicle lurched around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to persevere for a few more stops so the bus could reached my stop, so I could then rush hurriedly for the nearest public toilet to throw up.
As we neared the street towards the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. Suddenly, it was like a veil came over me. The world became blank and silent; similar to when one turned off the audio. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.
Fortunately, I stood near the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, explaining to him I needed to be sick. He promptly opened the bus doors and I weakly exited onto the sidewalk.
I was determined to avoid being sick in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and started trying to walk across to the park across the road, thinking I could I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to throw up. Yet I apparently blacked out. I sensed my physical self, yet walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, so I began inching my way to my intended destination.
“Everything alright, love?”
At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed an arm around my waist and a stranger inquired, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the mysterious stranger that I required to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost supported my weight down into an adjacent building and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me if I wanted him to wait for me but I declined.
After a short while, I felt better enough to sit down and from the other side of the stall I heard his voice asking, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to rise just then but did manage to thank him and following a brief period recovered the use of my limbs. I got myself home and spent the following days getting over which was a severe stomach virus.
I never saw the stranger’s face – merely his legs and the big container for tools he held – yet he rescued me, when I was completely helpless.
Many times, life tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that our default setting leans toward compassion, a quality I adore about humanity.
