I Was So Ill I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.

During my 19 years old, my morning travel involved an packed public transport. The vehicle was always jammed and was consistently completely full when I boarded.

One particular morning, I started experiencing terribly ill while the vehicle rocked around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to persevere another few kilometres so the bus could reached my stop, at which point I could make a mad dash to the closest public restroom to be sick.

We were coming down the avenue close to the destination as I understood I wasn’t going to make it. All of a sudden, it seemed a veil came over me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; as if someone muted everything. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver inside the vehicle, so I managed a couple of steps to ask the driver and told the operator to open the doors, telling him I was going to be sick. He promptly opened the doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

I was resolved not to vomit in view of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and started trying to stumble to the park on the other side, where I believed it would allow me to discreetly hide behind a bush to vomit. However I apparently blacked out. I could feel my physical self, yet I was unable to walk or see properly, so I started dragging myself toward the park.

“You right, love?”

In that instant, someone picked me up. I felt an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the unknown man that I required to get to a bathroom. So he virtually supported my weight over to a nearby building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He asked me if I wanted him to wait for me but I declined.

After a short while, I regained my composure to the point of sitting down when from beyond the door I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to stand up at that moment but I did succeed to express my gratitude and following a brief period was able to move my legs. I made my way home and then spent the next few days recovering from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never glimpsed his features – only his legs and the big steelwork tools container he held – yet he rescued me, during a time when I was completely helpless.

Frequently, society can make you defensive, aggressive and competitive. What he did was the kind of action that undoes that hardening of the heart. He was proof that humanity’s innate tendency is towards kindness, a trait I cherish in other people.