I Was So Ill Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.

During my nineteenth year, my regular journey to work meant taking an express bus. The vehicle was always jammed and would always be without any seats when I got on.

On one specific day, I started experiencing incredibly sick as the bus rocked around every turn. I kept telling myself to endure just a little longer until the bus arrived at where I needed to get off, and then I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient washroom to throw up.

We were coming down the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. Suddenly, it seemed a fog descended upon me. My vision turned white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.

Fortunately, I stood toward the front on the bus, allowing me to take several steps toward the driver and asked the driver to stop, informing him I was going to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped on to the pavement.

I was determined not to vomit before a busy multi-lane road, so I picked myself up and began attempting to make my way toward the green space opposite the street, where I thought it would allow me to find some privacy among some shrubs to vomit. Yet I must have lost consciousness. I sensed my body but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, leading me to start crawling towards the grassy area.

“You right, love?”

Right then, I was lifted up. There was someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this unknown man that I had to to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically carried me over to an adjacent building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me whether I required him to wait for me but I said no.

A few minutes later, I felt better enough to sit on the restroom floor and from outside the door came 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 thank him and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my limbs. I made my way home and then spent several days recovering from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never saw his features – just his lower half and a large metal toolbox he had with him – yet he rescued me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life has a way of making you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that our default setting is to be kind, a quality I adore about my fellow humans.