In Such Poor Health I Was Unable to Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.
Back when I was my late teens, my daily commute involved an crowded coach. The vehicle was always full and invariably became completely full by the time I got on.
During a certain commute, I was feeling terribly ill as the bus lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to persevere another few kilometres until the bus reached my destination, at which point I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient public restroom to vomit.
We were coming down the road leading to my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to make it. In an instant, it seemed a veil came over me. Everything just went white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Thankfully, I was positioned toward the front inside the vehicle, allowing me to take several steps forward and asked the driver to stop, explaining to him I needed to be sick. He opened the doors and I stumbled out on to the pavement.
I was resolved to not get sick before six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and began attempting to walk across to the park on the other side, thinking I could I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to be sick. However I must have fainted. I could feel my body but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, leading me to start dragging myself toward the park.
“Are you okay, dear?”
At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this mysterious stranger that I needed to be sick. Therefore, he almost helped me walk over to an adjacent building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He wanted to know whether I required him to wait for me but I said no.
After a short while, I had recovered to the point of sitting down and from the other side of the door came him inquire, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I could not to rise at that moment but did manage to say thank you and after a few more minutes regained the function of my feet. I returned home and spent the following days healing from what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.
I never glimpsed that man’s face – merely his legs and the big steelwork tools container he had with him – but he saved me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world has a way of making you guarded, hostile, and combative. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that emotional callousness. He demonstrated that people’s natural inclination is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.
