I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Restroom.
During my nineteenth year, my morning travel meant taking an crowded coach. It was perpetually full and was consistently without any seats when I boarded.
One particular morning, I started experiencing incredibly sick when the coach rocked around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to endure just a little longer before the bus arrived at my stop, and then I could rush hurriedly toward the most convenient public restroom to throw up.
As we neared the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. Suddenly, it seemed a veil came over me. The world became hazy and muffled; similar to when one cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Luckily I was close to the driver of the bus, so I took a few steps toward the driver and requested that the driver to stop, informing him I was going to get ill. The driver opened the entrance and I stumbled out out onto the street.
I was determined to avoid being sick in view of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and started trying to stumble across to the park on the other side, where I believed I’d at least be able to discreetly hide behind a bush to vomit. However I apparently lost consciousness. I was aware of my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I began crawling towards the grassy area.
“You right, love?”
In that instant, I got scooped up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I had to to be sick. Therefore, he almost carried me down into a nearby building and placed me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know if I needed him to stay with me but I said no.
Not long after, I felt better sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from the other side of the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I could not to get up just then but I was able to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes was able to move my legs. I made my way home passing the next few days healing from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.
I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – merely his legs and the big container for tools he held – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.
Frequently, society tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that protective shell. He was proof that our default setting leans toward compassion, something I love in other people.
