I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk When a Man Practically Supported Me to a Bathroom.

Back when I was my late teens, my morning travel meant taking an packed public transport. It was perpetually full and invariably became standing room only by the time I stepped aboard.

On one specific day, I started experiencing terribly ill while the vehicle swayed around each corner. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres before the bus reached my stop, at which point I could rush hurriedly for the nearest public toilet to vomit.

We were coming down the street towards my stop and it dawned on me I was unable to make it. In an instant, it was like a veil came over me. The world became white and really quiet; like someone had turned off the audio. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.

Luckily I was close to the driver inside the vehicle, so I took several steps toward the driver and asked the driver to stop, explaining to him I needed to get ill. The driver opened the entrance and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

I was determined to not get sick in view of six lanes of traffic, so I forced myself up and started trying to make my way to the park across the road, where I believed I’d at least be able to find some privacy among some shrubs to be sick. However I must have lost consciousness. I could feel my physical self, yet walking was impossible and my vision was blurry, leading me to start inching my way to the grassy area.

“Everything alright, love?”

Right then, I was lifted up. I felt someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I had to to get to a bathroom. Thus, he practically supported my weight over to an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know whether I required him to remain with me but I declined.

After a short while, I had recovered enough to sit on the toilet and from outside the door came him ask, “Are you OK, love? Can I get you something?” I wasn’t able to get up at that moment but I did succeed to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes was able to move my feet. I made my way home and spent the next few days healing from what was later diagnosed as a horrible case of gastroenteritis.

I did not see his features – merely his legs and a large container for tools he had with him – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Frequently, society tends to make people guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that emotional callousness. He was proof that our default setting is towards kindness, a trait I cherish about humanity.