Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to a Bathroom.
During my my late teens, my daily commute meant taking an crowded coach. It remained jammed and would always be without any seats when I got on.
One particular morning, I began feeling incredibly sick while the vehicle swayed around every turn. I continuously reassured myself to hold on another few kilometres before the bus got to my stop, and then I could sprint quickly toward the most convenient public toilet to vomit.
We were coming down the road leading to the stop when it dawned on me I wasn’t going to make it. Suddenly, it seemed a fog descended upon me. The world became hazy and muffled; like someone had cut the sound. My mind raced, “I will lose consciousness”.
Thankfully, I was positioned close to the driver on the bus, so I took a few steps to ask the driver and asked the driver to stop, telling him that I was about to get ill. The driver opened the entrance and I hurriedly stepped out onto the street.
I was resolved to avoid being sick in front of multiple lanes of cars, so I forced myself up and began attempting to walk to the park across the road, where I thought I’d at least be able to secretly conceal myself near some foliage to throw up. Yet I must have fainted. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk and my vision was blurry, so I started inching my way to my intended destination.
“Everything alright, love?”
At that moment, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I managed to tell the mysterious stranger that I had to to vomit. Therefore, he almost helped me walk into a nearby building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He wanted to know if I needed him to wait for me but I refused.
Not long after, I regained my composure to the point of sitting on the toilet and from outside the stall I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I was incapable to stand up right away but did manage to say thank you and shortly thereafter recovered the use of my feet. I made my way home and spent the next few days recovering from which was a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I never glimpsed his features – merely his legs and a large metal toolbox he had with him – but he helped me, at a moment I was in my weakest state.
Many times, life can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. His act was the type of kindness that melts away that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that our default setting leans toward compassion, something I love about my fellow humans.
