I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk When a Man Virtually Carried Me to a Bathroom.

During my nineteenth year, my daily commute was on an crowded coach. It was perpetually full and would always be standing room only once I boarded.

On one specific day, I started experiencing terribly ill as the bus swayed around every turn. I kept telling myself to hold on just a little longer so the bus could reached my destination, at which point I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient public toilet to be sick.

As we neared the avenue close to my stop and I realised I would not be to make it. In an instant, it was like a veil came over me. The world became hazy and muffled; similar to when one muted everything. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front of the bus, so I took a few steps to ask the driver and requested that the driver to stop, informing him I was going to vomit. He opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.

I was resolved not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and began attempting to walk toward the green space across the road, where I believed I could at least discreetly hide behind a bush to be sick. But then I apparently fainted. I was aware of my body but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, leading me to start crawling towards my intended destination.

“Everything alright, love?”

In that instant, I got scooped up. I sensed an arm around my waist and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I had to to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me down into a nearby building and put me into the female bathroom. He asked me if I wanted him to wait for me but I refused.

Not long after, I felt better sufficiently to sit down and from the other side of the door came him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to rise just then but I was able to say thank you and following a brief period was able to move my feet. I returned home and spent the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – merely his legs and a large steelwork tools container he held – but he helped me, during a time when I was completely helpless.

Many times, life can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. His was the sort of gesture that melts away that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting is towards kindness, something I love in other people.