Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to a Bathroom.

Back when I was 19 years old, my regular journey to work was on an crowded coach. The vehicle was always full and would always be standing room only once I boarded.

One particular morning, I began feeling incredibly sick when the coach swayed around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres before the bus got to my stop, so I could then rush hurriedly to the closest washroom to throw up.

The bus was approaching the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. Suddenly, it seemed a curtain fell over me. My vision turned white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Luckily I was toward the front inside the vehicle, so I took several steps toward the driver and told the operator to pull over, explaining to him I needed to vomit. 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 forced myself up and started trying to make my way toward the green space across the road, where I believed it would allow me to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to vomit. However I apparently blacked out. I sensed my physical self, yet I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I began crawling towards my intended destination.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. I felt an arm around my waist and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I required to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me down into an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He asked me whether I required him to stay with me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I had recovered enough to sit down when from beyond the stall I heard him ask, “Are you feeling better, dear? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to stand up just then but did manage to say thank you and shortly thereafter regained the function of my legs. I made my way home and then spent the following days healing from which was a severe stomach virus.

I did not see the stranger’s face – just his lower half and a large steelwork tools container he was carrying – but he saved me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life can make you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.