An award-winning British filmmaker has turned to the internet for assistance after a strange Australian woman intervened just as he was about to commit suicide on a train platform.
Layke Anderson, 38, is hoping that his famous Twitter thread will lead to the discovery of the woman who saved his life nearly four years ago at London’s Vauxhall subway station.
When the two ran into each other by coincidence in an emotional reunion at a bar a year later, he personally thanked her, but he never learned her name or saw her again.
Mr Anderson described his ‘guardian angel’ as a brunette with a grown son.
‘I tried to end my life on a tube platform in late 2018,’ began the thread of tweets.
‘A woman witnessed what was going on and intervened. All I could recall about this woman at the time were her earrings, which looked like Qing Dynasty money. To be honest, I don’t recall anything else, and I never told anyone.
Mr Anderson went out having a beer with his best friend a year later when he became aware of a presence and felt watched.
‘I’d left my specs (glasses) at home, but as I turned around, I recognized her right away.’ He remembered her being around 100 feet distant.
‘I decided to tell my mate everything right then and there, even though I hadn’t told anyone else about the story.’ It was difficult for me to express how I was feeling, but he’s the finest.
‘He turned to look as well, but she and I were already standing.’ We hugged but I don’t recall saying anything.
‘I remember feeling her heart beat and, of course, the earrings… she was wearing the same exact earrings,’ says the narrator.
Mr Anderson discovered the woman was an Australian who had relocated to the United Kingdom in search of job.
‘She was sat with another lady, someone she’d just met, and she was giving her the events of that morning,’ he recalled.
‘”She was basically telling me… describing you… and suddenly you sat down in front of us out of nowhere,”‘ the friend explained.
‘It was a bizarre moment for sure, but it seemed sort of expected in that I got to look this woman in the eyes and thank her for saving my life,’ says the author.
Mr Anderson intends to track down the Australian and tell her what she did for him, while also urging everyone to keep an eye out for one another.
‘We still don’t get to choose our guardian angels in a world awash with choices, living lives with increasingly more possibilities,’ Mr Anderson said.
‘However, if we’re lucky, as I was, they’ll find us when we’re in need.’ They’re keeping an eye on us, so let’s keep an eye on each other. ‘I’m only sharing this out of love.’
Well-wishers swamped Mr Anderson with letters of support, while others related their own fights with personal demons.
‘Your recall is such a lovely gift to all of us. It demonstrates how we are all put in our positions for a reason, and the fact that both of your paths met again in the most wonderful way is absolute confirmation of a divine power in charge! ‘I’ve seen this in my life as well,’ one woman added.
‘I have thought about ending it many times recently as well, but I always manage to chase it away, but be sure, one day it will catch up with me,’ said another.
‘However, I adore this story, which is full of optimism and generosity.’
Mr Anderson later admitted that the overwhelming response had overwhelmed him.
‘I’m truly, deeply affected beyond words,’ he wrote. ‘I’m reading and responding to every message, while also offering my greatest sympathies to all people who have lost someone under such circumstances.’
His work, notably his breakthrough film Dylan’s Room, has garnered awards and screened at dozens of international film festivals.
Mr Anderson previously worked as an actor, starring opposite Udo Kier and Stephen Fry in the 2009 Luxembourg-set feature film H.O.B.
Sweet Brother, a philosophical study into the darkest corners of the soul and a meditation on man’s fall from grace, is now under production.