I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to a Bathroom.
At the age of nineteenth year, my morning travel involved an packed public transport. It was perpetually crowded and invariably became without any seats once I stepped aboard.
On one specific day, I was feeling incredibly sick when the coach rocked around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus reached my destination, and then I could rush hurriedly to the closest public toilet to vomit.
We were coming down the avenue close to my stop and I realised I would not be to make it. In an instant, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. The world became blank and silent; similar to when one turned off the audio. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.
Fortunately, I stood near the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take a couple of steps forward and asked the driver to pull over, telling him that I was about to get ill. He opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.
My intention was to avoid being sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and started trying to make my way to the park on the other side, thinking I could I’d at least be able to find some privacy behind a bush to throw up. However I apparently fainted. I was aware of my body but I was unable to walk or see properly, leading me to start dragging myself toward the grassy area.
“Everything alright, love?”
At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I required to be sick. So he virtually carried me into an adjacent building and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me whether I required him to wait for me but I declined.
After a short while, I had recovered to the point of sitting down when from beyond the door I heard him inquire, “Are you OK, love? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to rise at that moment but I was able to say thank you and following a brief period recovered the use of my feet. I made my way home and then spent the following days healing from what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.
I did not see that man’s face – just his lower half and the big container for tools he had with him – yet he rescued me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.
Often this world can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that emotional callousness. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, something I love in other people.
