Feeling So Sick I Couldn’t Walk Until a Fellow Passenger Virtually Carried Me to the Toilets.
During my my late teens, my morning travel meant taking an packed public transport. The vehicle was always jammed and invariably became without any seats when I boarded.
One particular morning, I started experiencing quite nauseous while the vehicle lurched around the bends. I continuously reassured myself to endure just a little longer so the bus could arrived at where I needed to get off, and then I could rush hurriedly for the nearest washroom to be sick.
The bus was approaching the avenue close to the destination as it dawned on me I wasn’t going to make it. In an instant, it seemed a curtain fell over me. The world became hazy and muffled; similar to when one turned off the audio. I thought, “I will lose consciousness”.
Fortunately, I stood close to the driver inside the vehicle, so I managed a few steps to ask the driver and told the operator to stop, telling him I needed to get ill. He promptly opened the bus doors and I stumbled out on to the pavement.
I was determined to not get sick in view of six lanes of traffic, so I gathered myself and began attempting to stumble across to the park on the other side, where I believed I could at least find some privacy behind a bush to be sick. But then I likely lost consciousness. I was aware of my body but walking was impossible or see properly, so I started dragging myself toward my intended destination.
“You right, love?”
In that instant, someone picked me up. I felt someone holding me and a man’s voice asked, “Are you okay, dear?” I managed to tell the kind passerby that I needed to vomit. So he virtually helped me walk over to an adjacent building and guided me into the female bathroom. He wanted to know if I wanted him to stay with me but I declined.
Not long after, I regained my composure enough to sit on the toilet when from beyond the stall I heard him inquire, “Do you need anything, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to rise right away but did manage to thank him and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my limbs. I returned home and spent several days healing from what turned out to be a horrible case of gastroenteritis.
I did not see his features – only his legs and the big metal toolbox he had with him – but he saved me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.
Frequently, society can make you guarded, hostile, and combative. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that hardening of the heart. He served as evidence that humanity’s innate tendency is to be kind, a trait I cherish in other people.
