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

During my nineteenth year, my morning travel meant taking an packed public transport. It remained full and would always be standing room only when I boarded.

On one specific day, I started experiencing terribly ill when the coach lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to endure for a few more stops so the bus could got to my destination, and then I could rush hurriedly to the closest public restroom to throw up.

The bus was approaching the road leading to my stop and I understood I would not be to make it. All of a sudden, it was like a curtain fell over me. My vision turned hazy and muffled; like someone had turned off the audio. I said to myself, “I will lose consciousness”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver on the bus, so I managed a few steps to ask the driver and requested that the driver to pull over, telling him that I was about to be sick. The driver opened the entrance and I stumbled out on to the pavement.

My intention was to not get sick before multiple lanes of cars, so I picked myself up and began attempting to make my way toward the green space on the other side, thinking I could I could at least discreetly hide behind a bush to throw up. But then I likely lost consciousness. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started inching my way to the grassy area.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, I was lifted up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I needed to get to a bathroom. So he virtually helped me walk down into a close-by structure and placed me inside the women’s restroom. He wanted to know whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

Not long after, I had recovered enough to sit on the toilet and from the other side of the stall I heard him inquire, “Are you feeling better, dear? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to stand up just then but did manage to express my gratitude and following a brief period regained the function of my limbs. I returned home and spent the following days healing from what turned out to be a severe stomach virus.

I never glimpsed the stranger’s face – just his lower half and the big metal toolbox he held – but he saved me, when I was completely helpless.

Frequently, society has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that hardening of the heart. He was proof that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.