I Was So Ill I Was Unable to Walk As a Stranger Practically Supported Me to a Restroom.

At the age of nineteenth year, my morning travel involved an express bus. The vehicle was always jammed and invariably became completely full when I stepped aboard.

One particular morning, I was feeling terribly ill as the bus swayed around the bends. I repeatedly told myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus reached where I needed to get off, at which point I could rush hurriedly toward the most convenient washroom to throw up.

We were coming down the road leading to the destination as it dawned on me I would not be to make it. All of a sudden, it was like a curtain fell over me. Everything just went hazy and muffled; like someone had cut the sound. I said to myself, “I am about to pass out”.

Fortunately, I stood close to the driver of the bus, allowing me to take several steps toward the driver and asked the driver to open the doors, telling him I needed to be sick. He opened the doors and I weakly exited out onto the street.

I was determined to avoid being sick in front of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and started trying to make my way across to the park on the other side, where I believed it would allow me to find some privacy behind a bush to throw up. But then I must have fainted. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn’t walk or see clearly, so I started crawling towards the park.

“You right, love?”

At that moment, I was lifted up. I sensed a strong arm supporting me and a stranger inquired, “You right, love?” I managed to tell the mysterious stranger that I needed to be sick. So he virtually carried me into a nearby building and placed me in the ladies’ toilets. He inquired if I needed him to stay with me but I said no.

Not long after, I regained my composure sufficiently to sit on the restroom floor and from the other side of the stall I heard his voice asking, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to rise just then but I did succeed to say thank you and following a brief period recovered the use of my feet. I got myself home and spent several days healing from what was later diagnosed as a severe stomach virus.

I never saw the stranger’s face – only his legs and a large metal toolbox he held – but he saved me, during a time when I was in my weakest state.

Many times, life tends to make people defensive, aggressive and competitive. His act was the type of kindness that undoes that hardening of the heart. He demonstrated that our default setting is to be kind, something I love in other people.