I Kept Someone From Commiting Suicide

Last night I spent the best part of three hours doing this. It was about one in the morning when I came across a man standing on a pretty remote abandoned railway bridge in the woods that not too many people know about. Its about forty feet high and has crumbled almost away with not much left bar the steel subframe, some crumbling brickwork and a few rotten boards. At first I thought it was another hallucination so I paid him no heed as I began to climb the old steel structure. He stood stock still, just a faint shadow silhouette against the night sky and clearly hadn't noticed me until I reached the top of the bridge and straddled one of the girders to light up a smoke. He moved to look around at me and I nearly fell myself. As soon as he turned I could see he was real and in a state of some distress, he immediately has started looking around but when he saw I was alone he went back to leaning against one of the old posts. I called out to him "hey mate, are you alright? Not usually anyone out here at this time of night" but no response. After a few more tries I still couldn't get anything out of him so I told him I had some beers in my bag and asked if he wanted one which got a hesitant nod so I climbed back down to where I had left my bag. I already had my suspicions at this point but when I spotted an envelope stapled to one of the old signposts under the bridge I knew for certain why he was there and quietly dialled for the emergency services. Unfortunately the first operator didn't believe me, but on the second try I managed to get through to the police and convince them that I wasn't a prankster, they told me they were very busy but they could send someone out in the next two hours.. Two fucking hours... And they also told me not to approach or go back onto the bridge, they were more concerned about my trespassing than the gentleman who needed help. I went back up the bridge with the beers and my bag this time, and the guy let me approach to give him the beer and light a cigarette for him. I managed to get him to sit down on a girder and made myself comfortable on the next one over. After a minute or two of silence he thanked me and then everything just started to pour out, we talked about the mental health services and the various things we had both been through, I asked what had brought him to this point tonight and then we both laughed because that's exactly what the professionals always say. Having a lot of things in common meant I was eventually able to convince him that tonight was not his night and helped him climb down off the bridge just as half a dozen police officers and two paramedics appeared at the far end of the trail way off in the distance two hours and forty-five minutes after I called them. I offered him my lighter and he burned the note he had left before we both met the emergency services and went in the ambulance to the hospital together. I stayed with him in A&E and we talked some more and had coffee until the duty team from the local mental health services arrived at around seven thirty in the morning and he thanked me for my help and apologised for ruining my night. I told him that far from ruining my night he had done the exact opposite and he looked at me suddenly realising what I meant, and why I had been at the bridge, and I just nodded, we wished each other better times in future and parted ways.

In some ways I feel like a hypocrite but in others I'm glad he was there. The only reason I had taken that walk out to the bridge last night was that I had full intention of hanging myself, and in talking him down I managed to talk us both down and gave us both a second chance at a new day. I burned my note before getting on the bus home but for some reason couldn't bring myself to throw away the noose I had made. My journey in this world isn't over yet, I will continue to seek help for my problems and attempt to overcome them, and I sincerely hope that he manages to do the same.

I apologise that this has been long and poorly written, but I needed to get it off my chest and this is the only place I can do so without repercussions from why I was there in the first place