I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.

At the age of nineteenth year, my regular journey to work was on an express bus. It was perpetually jammed and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.

One particular morning, I was feeling incredibly sick as the bus rocked around each corner. I continuously reassured myself to persevere another few kilometres so the bus could reached my stop, and then I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient public restroom to vomit.

The bus was approaching the road leading to my stop and I understood I would not be to last. All of a sudden, it was like a fog descended upon me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; as if someone cut the sound. I thought, “I am about to pass out”.

Luckily I was near the front on the bus, so I managed a few steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, telling him that I was about to be sick. The driver opened the entrance and I stumbled out on to the pavement.

I was determined to not get sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to stumble across to the park on the other side, where I thought I could at least secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to vomit. However I apparently lost consciousness. I sensed my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started dragging myself toward the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

Right then, I was lifted up. There was an arm around my waist and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I required to vomit. Thus, he practically helped me walk into a nearby building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

Not long after, I regained my composure enough to sit on the restroom floor and from outside the door I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to stand up at that moment but I was able to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter recovered the use of my legs. I got myself home and then spent the next few days healing from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I did not see the stranger’s face – only his legs along with a sizable container for tools he was carrying – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

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 is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.