In Such Poor Health I Couldn’t Walk As a Stranger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.
Back when I was my late teens, my regular journey to work was on an crowded coach. It was perpetually crowded and would always be completely full by the time I boarded.
On one specific day, I began feeling incredibly sick as the bus swayed around every turn. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres before the bus got to my stop, and then I could sprint quickly to the closest washroom to throw up.
As we neared the avenue close to the destination as I understood I wasn’t going to make it. Suddenly, it seemed a curtain fell over me. My vision turned blank and silent; like someone had muted everything. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.
Luckily I was close to the driver inside the vehicle, allowing me to take several steps forward and asked the driver to pull over, informing him I needed to be sick. He promptly opened the doors and I stumbled out onto the sidewalk.
My intention was to not get sick in front of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and began attempting to walk toward the green space across the road, where I believed I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to be sick. But then I apparently lost consciousness. I could feel my body but walking was impossible or see properly, so I began dragging myself toward my intended destination.
“Are you okay, dear?”
Right then, I got scooped up. There was someone holding me and a stranger inquired, “Are you okay, dear?” I explained to this kind passerby that I needed to be sick. So he virtually carried me down into an adjacent building and placed me into the female bathroom. He asked me if I wanted him to remain with me but I refused.
Not long after, I felt better to the point of sitting down when from beyond the stall I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Is there anything you require?” I could not to stand up at that moment but did manage to express my gratitude and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my legs. I made my way home and spent the following days healing from which was a severe stomach virus.
I never saw the stranger’s face – just his lower half and the big metal toolbox he had with him – but he helped me, at a moment I was at my most vulnerable.
Often this world has a way of making you guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that reverses that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that humanity’s innate tendency leans toward compassion, something I love in other people.
