Andrew's Story

At that point I'd been married for roughly 23, 24 years.
I would have thought we were fairly happy, then one morning she got up and left.
At the time I didn't know why, but the world collapsed.
My name's Andrew and this is my story.
Things got to a point where one night, I couldn't take anymore.
I ended up sitting by a major road, and I stepped into that road with no intention of getting across the other side of it.
Somebody pulled me off it, I felt an an arm around my neck.
I was told afterwards, the wing mirror of a tipper lorry."
I got taken to hospital, three minutes with a psychiatrist and then told:
"oh no, you can go home now.
I rode around for.
a good hour, and I suddenly found myself parked outside a church.
And for some reason I walked up the path, and I knocked on the door of the vicarage.
This older man opened the door, I just said to him:
"can I sit in your church please?"
And he went:
"yes, I'll just go and get the keys."
We went into the church, he sat a good ten yards behind me, right at the back of the church.
I didn't even know he was there, but he was there.
And for a good hour I sat there, crying my eyeballs out, in a right state - trying to find answers.
And I left and said thank you and he asked me to go back in a couple of days, which I did.
And eventually he said to me:
"would you come in on Sunday?"
So I did and one Sunday led to another, and then a third, then a fourth.
And the service started and one of the readings was Psalm 23:
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
And it got weird, a song that I never thought I'd ever hear in church:
You'll Never Walk Alone, Gerry and the Pacemakers.
It was like dominoes collapsing, or a house of cards coming down.
It just all fell into place.
The sudden realisation that, yes, there is more.
It's a life of love.
Because there's so much goodness there it's just unexplainable.
After some months things happened and me and my wife talked to one another, and yes we've been back together for five years and we celebrate 30 years of marriage next year.
He's given me a life that I never, ever would have known about or even thought about steeping in too.
If I'd known all those years ago, I would have come running towards it.
I would have come running towards it.