I Was So Ill Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Practically Supported Me to the Toilets.

Back when I was my late teens, my daily commute involved an crowded coach. It remained jammed and would always be completely full by the time I got on.

During a certain commute, I started experiencing quite nauseous as the bus rocked around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus arrived at my stop, and then I could sprint quickly to the closest public toilet to be sick.

As we neared the avenue close to my stop and I realised I would not be to hold on. In an instant, it was like a curtain fell over me. My vision turned blank and silent; like someone had muted everything. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.

Luckily I was toward the front on the bus, allowing me to take a couple of steps forward and requested that the driver to pull over, explaining to him I was going to vomit. He promptly opened the entrance and I stumbled out on to the pavement.

I was resolved to avoid being sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and started trying to stumble across to the park on the other side, where I thought I’d at least be able to find some privacy among some shrubs to be sick. Yet I likely fainted. I sensed my physical self, yet I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I started crawling towards the grassy area.

“Are you okay, dear?”

At that moment, I got scooped up. I felt an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I told this unknown man that I required to get to a bathroom. Therefore, he almost helped me walk over to a close-by structure and guided me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired if I wanted him to remain with me but I declined.

A few minutes later, I regained my composure enough to sit on the toilet and from outside the stall I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to get up at that moment but I was able to say thank you and following a brief period recovered the use of my limbs. I made my way home and spent several days getting over what was later diagnosed as a nasty tummy bug.

I did not see that man’s face – merely his legs and a large container for tools he was carrying – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.

Many times, life has a way of making you guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that emotional callousness. He served as evidence that our default setting is towards kindness, a trait I cherish about humanity.