I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk When a Man Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.
Back when I was 19 years old, my daily commute meant taking an crowded coach. It remained jammed and was consistently without any seats by the time I boarded.
During a certain commute, I started experiencing incredibly sick when the coach lurched around each corner. I kept telling myself to persevere just a little longer so the bus could got to where I needed to get off, at which point I could rush hurriedly toward the most convenient public restroom to throw up.
We were coming down the street towards the stop when I understood I wasn’t going to last. In an instant, it was like a curtain fell over me. The world became white and really quiet; similar to when one muted everything. My mind raced, “I’m going to faint”.
Fortunately, I stood toward the front inside the vehicle, so I managed a couple of steps forward and asked the driver to stop, telling him I was going to vomit. He opened the bus doors and I stumbled out out onto the street.
My intention was to not get sick before a busy multi-lane road, so I forced myself up and started trying to walk toward the green space on the other side, where I believed I could at least secretly conceal myself behind a bush to vomit. But then I likely blacked out. I sensed my physical self, yet walking was impossible or see properly, so I started dragging myself toward the park.
“Everything alright, love?”
In that instant, I was lifted up. I felt someone holding me and heard a man say, “Everything alright, love?” I explained to this unknown man that I required to vomit. Thus, he practically supported my weight into a nearby building and guided me inside the women’s restroom. He inquired if I wanted him to stay with me but I refused.
A few minutes later, I had recovered enough to sit on the toilet and from the other side of the stall I heard his voice asking, “Are you feeling better, dear? Is there anything you require?” I could not to get up just then but did manage to thank him and after a few more minutes was able to move my limbs. I made my way home and then spent several 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 steelwork tools container he was carrying – but he helped me, during a time when I was at my most vulnerable.
Frequently, society can make you self-protective, pushy, and rivalrous. What he did was the kind of action that reverses that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that our default setting is to be kind, a trait I cherish about my fellow humans.
