In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk When a Man Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.
At the age of my late teens, my daily commute meant taking an express bus. It remained crowded and invariably became completely full when I stepped aboard.
One particular morning, I was feeling incredibly sick while the vehicle rocked around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to hold on for a few more stops so the bus could got to my stop, at which point I could rush hurriedly to the closest public toilet to be sick.
We were coming down the avenue close to my stop and it dawned on me I wasn’t going to last. All of a sudden, it was like a veil came over me. My vision turned blank and silent; as if someone muted everything. My mind raced, “I am about to pass out”.
Luckily I was toward the front on the bus, allowing me to take a few steps forward and asked the driver to stop, telling him that I was about to get ill. He opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.
My intention was not to vomit in view of a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to walk to the park across the road, where I believed it would allow me to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to be sick. But then I must have fainted. I sensed my body but I was unable to walk and my vision was blurry, so I started dragging myself toward the grassy area.
“You right, love?”
In that instant, I got scooped up. I felt an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this kind passerby that I required to be sick. Therefore, he almost carried me down into a nearby building and put me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me whether I required him to stay with me but I declined.
Not long after, I felt better enough to sit on the toilet when from beyond the door I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to stand up right away but I was able to thank him and after a few more minutes regained the function of my limbs. I made my way home passing the next few days getting over what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never glimpsed 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 completely helpless.
Frequently, society has a way of making you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that melts away that protective shell. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a trait I cherish about humanity.
