Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.
Back when I was 19 years old, my morning travel meant taking an express bus. It remained full and was consistently without any seats once I boarded.
On one specific day, I was feeling terribly ill while the vehicle swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to endure another few kilometres until the bus reached my destination, so I could then rush hurriedly for the nearest washroom to throw up.
The bus was approaching the road leading to the destination as I understood I was unable to hold on. Suddenly, it felt as if a veil came over me. Everything just went white and really quiet; as if someone cut the sound. I said to myself, “I’m going to faint”.
Thankfully, I was positioned near the front of the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps forward and told the operator to pull over, telling him I needed to get ill. He promptly opened the doors and I weakly exited out onto the street.
I was resolved not to vomit in view of six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and started trying to stumble to the park across the road, where I believed I’d at least be able to find some privacy behind a bush to be sick. However I apparently lost consciousness. I was aware of my body but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started inching my way to the park.
“Everything alright, love?”
In that instant, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I told this mysterious stranger that I had to to be sick. So he virtually helped me walk down into an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He inquired whether I required him to stay with me but I declined.
Not long after, I felt better sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from outside the door came him ask, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to rise right away but I was able to thank him and shortly thereafter recovered the use of my limbs. I made my way home and then spent the following days getting over what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – only his legs and the big metal toolbox he held – yet he rescued me, when I was in my weakest state.
Many times, life has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a quality I adore about humanity.
