In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to a Bathroom.

At the age of nineteenth year, my regular journey to work involved an express bus. It remained jammed and was consistently without any seats when I got on.

On one specific day, I began feeling terribly ill when the coach swayed around the bends. I kept telling myself to persevere just a little longer before the bus got to my destination, and then I could rush hurriedly toward the most convenient washroom to throw up.

The bus was approaching the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it was like a veil came over me. My vision turned white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. I thought, “I am about to pass out”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver inside the vehicle, so I managed a couple of steps toward the driver and asked the driver to pull over, informing him I needed to be sick. The driver opened the doors and I weakly exited out onto the street.

My intention was to avoid being sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and started trying to stumble toward the green space across the road, where I believed it would allow me to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to throw up. However I likely fainted. I was aware of my limbs, but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started crawling towards the grassy area.

“Are you okay, dear?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me down into a close-by structure and guided me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know if I wanted him to remain with me but I refused.

Not long after, I regained my composure enough to sit on the restroom floor and from the other side of the door came his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to rise at that moment but did manage to say thank you and following a brief period was able to move my limbs. I made my way home and then spent several days getting over which was a severe stomach virus.

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

Often this world tends to make people self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that reverses that hardening of the heart. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency leans toward compassion, a trait I cherish about my fellow humans.