In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.
At the age of my late teens, my daily commute was on an crowded coach. The vehicle was always jammed and invariably became without any seats by the time I stepped aboard.
One particular morning, I was feeling incredibly sick as the bus swayed around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on just a little longer until the bus reached my destination, and then I could sprint quickly to the closest public toilet to vomit.
We were coming down the road leading to my stop and I understood I would not be to last. In an instant, it felt as if a veil came over me. The world became hazy and muffled; like someone had muted everything. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Thankfully, I was positioned toward the front inside the vehicle, so I managed a couple of steps forward and told the operator to stop, telling him I needed to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I weakly exited on to the pavement.
My intention was to not get sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and endeavored to walk to the park opposite the street, where I thought I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to throw up. However I must have fainted. I sensed my body but I was unable to walk or see properly, leading me to start crawling towards my intended destination.
“Everything alright, love?”
In that instant, someone picked me up. I felt someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I needed to be sick. Thus, he practically carried me into a nearby building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I wanted him to remain with me but I refused.
After a short while, I had recovered sufficiently to sit on the toilet when from beyond the stall I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to rise just then but I was able to thank him and following a brief period was able to move my legs. I made my way home passing several days recovering from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never saw that man’s face – merely his legs and a large steelwork tools container he had with him – but he helped me, when I was in my weakest state.
Many times, life tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that our default setting leans toward compassion, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.
