I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Bathroom.

At the age of my late teens, my morning travel involved an crowded coach. It remained jammed and would always be completely full when I stepped aboard.

On one specific day, I began feeling terribly ill when the coach swayed around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to persevere just a little longer before the bus reached my stop, so I could then make a mad dash toward the most convenient public toilet to vomit.

As we neared the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I would not be to hold on. All of a sudden, it seemed a fog descended upon me. Everything just went blank and silent; as if someone cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.

Luckily I was close to the driver on the bus, so I managed a few steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to open the doors, telling him I was going to vomit. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

I was resolved to avoid being sick in view of multiple lanes of cars, so I picked myself up and began attempting to stumble toward the green space opposite the street, where I thought it would allow me to find some privacy behind a bush to vomit. However I must have fainted. I sensed my body but walking was impossible or see properly, leading me to start inching my way to the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. I sensed an arm around my waist and a stranger inquired, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost carried me into an adjacent building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know if I wanted him to wait for me but I refused.

After a short while, I had recovered sufficiently to sit down and from the other side of the door came him ask, “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 shortly thereafter was able to move my feet. I returned home passing the following days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.

I never glimpsed his features – just his lower half along with a sizable steelwork tools container he held – yet he rescued me, when I was completely helpless.

Often this world has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that our default setting leans toward compassion, a quality I adore in other people.