Anton used to be the kind of man who was always ready to help others.
His business thrived, his family was happy, and life was comfortable.
But within a single year, everything fell apart.
The business he had built with his own sweat collapsed, his marriage broke down, and the mountain of debt felt like a noose around his neck.
Anton shut himself off from the world.
He avoided friends, ignored phone calls.
To him, he wasn’t supposed to be the one being helped—he had always been the helper.
Nights were spent staring blankly into the darkness, wondering what was left of his life.
One evening, for reasons he couldn’t explain, he left the house and booked a ride on a motorbike taxi.
The driver, a middle-aged man with a warm voice, struck up a conversation right away.
Politics, grocery prices, celebrity gossip—anything and everything.
To Anton, it all just sounded like static buzzing in his ears.
He just wanted to reach his destination.
But then, as they crossed a quiet set of train tracks, the driver suddenly said,
“Sir… yesterday, someone took their own life right here.
I keep wondering—what makes someone go that far?”
Anton froze. His chest tightened.
And then, tears—tears he had been holding back for days—burst out.
The driver glanced at him through the mirror, then gently pulled over near a small roadside coffee stall.
“Let’s sit for a bit, Sir. Have a coffee.”
That night, Anton spoke—
Not to a psychologist, not to an old friend—
But to a stranger, a motorbike driver whose name he didn’t even know.
The driver simply listened, nodding now and then, never judging.
Anton cried until his voice was gone.
Life didn’t magically fix itself after that night.
The debts remained, the problems were still there.
But something inside Anton had shifted—he knew he wasn’t completely alone.
A few days later, a message appeared on his phone.
“Stay strong, Sir.”
Just two simple words.
But to Anton, it felt like a hand reaching out to him from the darkness—
A quiet reassurance that someone, somewhere, still believed he could make it through.
For the first time in a long while, Anton smiled.
Maybe, just maybe, life was still worth living.
Photo by Andrew Karn on Unsplash
