Shanoa

Something positive and rather inspirational for myself happened today.

My mother told me she recently got news from one of our neighbor that lived in an apartment below our, when we lived in my old place well over 10 years ago. I didn't really had a lot a memories of the man himself, i simply remembered his name and how he looked like but most memories of what we did together were long gone. I just remember the last time i saw him i was around the age of 5 or 7 years old, one of the two.

The man in question showed my mother old pictures of me and my brothers and by old i mean when i was 2 years old easily, when she told me that i was originally a bit puzzled, like, "why would he have those photos of us still after so long..." (and many more apparently) and then i learned minutes later that, at the time he was living below us his then-best friend had stolen his then-girlfriend, so he was going through a major depression. That's when he told my mother that me and my brothers had saved him, especially me because, after hearing this, i did remember how he and i were close. My mother was telling me how i was constantly shouting his name whenever i'd see him coming home and how i always loved playing with him. He was not a family member, just a friend, but the man felt like family more than anyone else, with the exception of my own mother and brothers of course.

After she told me the story, i understood why he still had those photos over 2 decades later. I was part of his inspiration to keep on living and start anew and that's ontop of, i'm sure, wanting to keep memories once he moved away. I was happy to see the man got married and now has 2 kids of his own (he had nobody beside us back then). I decided to message him a few hours ago, he's yet to respond but i can only imagine the face he'll make once he realize i wrote to him.

I couldn't be happier for him and apparently he drops by my city fairly often for work related stuff and told my mother he'd like to visit in the future. I feel so moved, knowing that i was once the driving force behind a man's will to keep on living and not take his own life.

I had to share my story somewhere, someplace. Sorry if its a bit of a read but thank you for reading if you do take the time to read it.