I Was So Ill Walking Was Impossible As a Stranger Essentially Lifted Me to the Toilets.

During my nineteenth year, my regular journey to work meant taking an packed public transport. It remained crowded and was consistently completely full by the time I boarded.

On one specific day, I started experiencing quite nauseous as the bus swayed around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to endure just a little longer before the bus reached my stop, at which point I could rush hurriedly toward the most convenient public toilet to be sick.

We were coming down the avenue close to the destination as I realised I was unable to make it. Suddenly, it felt as if a veil came over me. Everything just went blank and silent; similar to when one cut the sound. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.

Fortunately, I stood close to the driver of the bus, so I took a couple of steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, explaining to him that I was about to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I hurriedly stepped onto the sidewalk.

I was determined not to vomit in front of a busy multi-lane road, so I gathered myself and began attempting to walk across to the park opposite the street, where I believed I could at least discreetly hide behind a bush to throw up. However I apparently fainted. I sensed my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I started inching my way to the park.

“Everything alright, love?”

At that moment, someone picked me up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I had to to get to a bathroom. So he virtually supported my weight down into a nearby building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He wanted to know if I wanted him to remain with me but I said no.

After a short while, I had recovered enough to sit on the restroom floor when from beyond the door came him ask, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to get up right away but did manage to thank him and following a brief period regained the function of my limbs. I returned home and then spent the following days healing from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I never glimpsed his features – just his lower half and a large container for tools he was carrying – yet he rescued me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. His was the sort of gesture that melts away that protective shell. He served as evidence that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, a quality I adore in other people.