Feeling So Sick Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.
At the age of 19 years old, my daily commute was on an crowded coach. The vehicle was always jammed and was consistently standing room only by the time I got on.
One particular morning, I started experiencing quite nauseous while the vehicle rocked around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to persevere another few kilometres so the bus could reached my stop, so I could then sprint quickly for the nearest washroom to throw up.
The bus was approaching the street towards the destination as it dawned on me I wasn’t going to hold on. All of a sudden, it seemed a curtain fell over me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; as if someone muted everything. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Luckily I was toward the front on the bus, so I managed a couple of steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to pull over, telling him I was going to be sick. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out on to the pavement.
My intention was to not get sick in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble to the park on the other side, where I believed it would allow me to find some privacy behind a bush to be sick. Yet I must have fainted. I sensed my body but I was unable to walk or see properly, so I began crawling towards the park.
“Everything alright, love?”
At that moment, I was lifted up. I felt an arm around my waist and a man’s voice asked, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I required to vomit. Therefore, he almost carried me down into a nearby building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me whether I required him to remain with me but I refused.
Not long after, I felt better enough to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to stand up at that moment but I was able to express my gratitude and shortly thereafter was able to move my feet. I returned home passing the following days getting over what was later diagnosed as a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never saw his features – only his legs along with a sizable container for tools he held – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.
Frequently, society can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that protective shell. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, something I love in other people.