In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.
During my nineteenth year, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. It was perpetually full and invariably became completely full by the time I stepped aboard.
On one specific day, I started experiencing quite nauseous while the vehicle swayed around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus arrived at where I needed to get off, at which point I could rush hurriedly toward the most convenient washroom to vomit.
As we neared the avenue close to my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to make it. In an instant, it felt as if a curtain fell over me. My vision turned blank and silent; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.
Thankfully, I was positioned toward the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take several steps forward and asked the driver to pull over, explaining to him I needed to vomit. He opened the bus doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.
My intention was to not get sick before multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and started trying to make my way to the park across the road, where I thought it would allow me to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to be sick. But then I apparently blacked out. I could feel my limbs, but I was unable to walk or see clearly, leading me to start crawling towards the grassy area.
“You right, love?”
Right then, I got scooped up. I felt a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I needed to vomit. Therefore, he almost supported my weight into a close-by structure and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me whether I required him to wait for me but I refused.
Not long after, I regained my composure to the point of sitting down and from outside the stall I heard him ask, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I was incapable to rise just then but I did succeed to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes was able to move my feet. I got myself home passing the following days getting over what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never glimpsed his features – just his lower half and a large metal toolbox he had with him – but he saved me, when I was at my most vulnerable.
Many times, life has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that people’s natural inclination is towards kindness, something I love about my fellow humans.
