The kindness of strangers: I was so ill I couldn’t walk when a man virtually carried me to the toilets

5 days ago 18

When I was 19, I commuted to work every morning on an express bus. It was perpetually crowded and would always be standing room only by the time I got on.

One particular morning, I was feeling quite nauseous as the bus swayed around each corner. I kept telling myself to hold on another few kilometres until the bus got to my stop, and then I could make a mad dash for the nearest public toilet to throw up.

We were coming down the street towards the stop when I realised I wasn’t going to make it. All of a sudden, it was like a veil came over me. Everything just went white and really quiet; like someone had cut the sound. I thought, “I’m going to faint”.

Luckily I was near the front of the bus, so I took a couple of steps forward and asked the driver to stop, telling him I was going to be sick. He opened the doors and I stumbled out on to the pavement.

I was determined not to vomit in front of six lanes of traffic, so I picked myself up and started trying to walk to the park across the road, where I thought I’d at least be able to discreetly hide behind a bush to throw up. But then I must have blacked out. I could feel my body but I couldn’t walk or see properly, so I started crawling towards the park.

At that moment, I got scooped up. I felt an arm around my waist and heard a man say, “You right, love?” I told this mysterious stranger that I needed to be sick. So he virtually carried me down into a nearby building and put me in the ladies’ toilets. He asked me if I needed him to stay with me but I said no.

A few minutes later I had recovered enough to sit on the toilet and from outside the door I heard him ask, “Are you OK, love? Do you need anything?” I wasn’t able to get up just then but did manage to say thank you and after a few more minutes recovered the use of my legs. I got myself home and spent the next few days recovering from what turned out to be a nasty tummy bug.

I never saw that man’s face – only his legs and the big steelwork tools container he was carrying – but he saved me, when I was at my most vulnerable.

Often this world can make you defensive, aggressive and competitive. His was the sort of gesture that undoes that hardening of the heart. He was proof that people’s natural inclination is towards kindness, something I love about my fellow humans.