In Such Poor Health Walking Was Impossible Until a Fellow Passenger Essentially Lifted Me to a Restroom.
At the age of my late teens, my morning travel was on an crowded coach. It remained full and would always be standing room only when I got on.
One particular morning, I began feeling incredibly sick when the coach rocked around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to endure another few kilometres before the bus reached my stop, so I could then make a mad dash for the nearest washroom to vomit.
We were coming down the road leading to the destination as I understood I was unable to last. In an instant, it felt as if a veil came over me. Everything just went blank and silent; similar to when one turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.
Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver of the bus, so I took several steps toward the driver and told the operator to open the doors, telling him I was going to be sick. The driver opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.
I was determined to avoid being sick in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble across to the park opposite the street, thinking I could I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself among some shrubs to throw up. Yet I likely blacked out. I was aware of my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I started inching my way to the grassy area.
“Are you okay, dear?”
In that instant, I was lifted up. I sensed someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I had to to get to a bathroom. So he virtually helped me walk over to a nearby building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me if I needed him to wait for me but I said no.
A few minutes later, I felt better to the point of sitting down when from beyond the door came his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to rise right away but did manage to express my gratitude and following a brief period regained the function of my legs. I returned home and then spent the next few days healing from which was a severe stomach virus.
I never saw the stranger’s face – only his legs and the big container for tools he held – but he saved me, when I was in my weakest state.
Frequently, society has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that hardening of the heart. He was proof that our default setting is to be kind, a quality I adore in other people.
