Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible When a Man Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

Back when I was 19 years old, my daily commute was on an packed public transport. It remained full and would always be standing room only once I got on.

One particular morning, I started experiencing incredibly sick as the bus lurched around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to endure just a little longer until the bus got to where I needed to get off, and then I could rush hurriedly for the nearest public toilet to be sick.

As we neared the road leading to my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. In an instant, it was like a veil came over me. Everything just went blank and silent; like someone had turned off the audio. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Fortunately, I stood near the front of the bus, allowing me to take several steps forward and told the operator to open the doors, telling him I needed to get ill. He opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.

I was determined to avoid being sick before multiple lanes of cars, so I forced myself up and started trying to stumble across to the park on the other side, where I thought I’d at least be able to find some privacy among some shrubs to vomit. However I must have lost consciousness. I sensed my body but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I began crawling towards the park.

“Are you okay, dear?”

In that instant, I got scooped up. I felt a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I needed to be sick. So he virtually supported my weight over to a close-by structure and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired whether I required him to stay with me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I had recovered to the point of sitting on the toilet and from outside the door came his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I could not to rise just then but I was able to thank him and following a brief period recovered the use of my limbs. I got myself home and spent the following days recovering from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw that man’s face – just his lower half along with a sizable steelwork tools container he was carrying – but he helped me, during a time when I was completely helpless.

Many times, life has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that our default setting is towards kindness, a quality I adore in other people.