Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible When a Man Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work was on an packed public transport. It was perpetually full and was consistently without any seats when I boarded.

On one specific day, I began feeling quite nauseous when the coach lurched around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to hold on for a few more stops until the bus arrived at where I needed to get off, and then I could sprint quickly to the closest washroom to be sick.

The bus was approaching the street towards the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to make it. In an instant, it felt as if a veil came over me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; as if someone turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Luckily I was close to the driver of the bus, so I managed a few steps forward and told the operator to pull over, explaining to him I was going to vomit. He promptly opened the doors and I weakly exited on to the pavement.

I was determined not to vomit before six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and started trying to make my way toward the green space opposite the street, where I believed I’d at least be able to find some privacy behind a bush to be sick. But then I apparently lost consciousness. I sensed my body but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I started dragging myself toward the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I required to be sick. Therefore, he almost carried me into a close-by structure and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

After a short while, I had recovered enough to sit on the toilet and from the other side of the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to get up at that moment but I was able to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my legs. I got myself home and spent the following days recovering from what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.

I did not see the stranger’s face – only his legs and a large container for tools he was carrying – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Often this world tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a trait I cherish about humanity.