When Asking for Help Became My Only Option

We live in a world that often praises strength as doing everything alone holding back tears, staying silent, and pretending we’re fine even when we are not. But the truth is, it is okay to ask for help sometimes. It doesn’t mean you are weak. It simply means you are human.

For a long time, I thought being strong meant carrying the burden without showing it. I believed asking for help was like admitting defeat. But life taught me otherwise through one of the hardest and most painful moments I’ve ever faced.

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My father became very sick. It wasn’t the kind of sickness that goes away with rest or simple treatment. It was serious and stretched on for months. We took him to the hospital, hoping things would improve, but they didn’t. Every week brought a new bill, a new drug, and more tests. Slowly, we ran out of money.

We sold his car. My mother emptied her savings. Nothing was left. But the hospital kept asking. Every day, we were struggling to meet the next bill. My mother tried her best to borrow loans from different companies and do all she could to keep my father alive. I watched her break down in private, and I knew things were getting out of hand.

My siblings and I couldn’t do much. We were all just trying to be strong for one another. But deep down, I felt useless, like we were just watching our father slip away. One night, as I lay awake thinking about everything, one person came to mind my Aunt.

She is rich, very rich. But the truth is, we didn’t have a good relationship with her. She was proud, and my parents never liked asking her for anything. They always said, “It’s better to suffer than to beg someone who will mock you.” I understood that, and I felt the same way. But things had gone beyond pride. This was life and death.

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I didn’t tell anyone. I knew my parents would stop me. But I made up my mind and went to see her. As I went to her house in the morning and stood outside her gate my mind was telling me to turn back but I reminded myself that I was doing this for my father, we need to save him so I summoned courage and entered the gate.

When she saw me, she was surprised. I sat down and told her everything about the hospital, the money, how we had nothing left, and how we feared losing him. She listened quietly. I expected her to talk down on me or dismiss me. But she didn’t.

To my shock, she gave me money to cover some of the bills. Then, she did something even more surprising she followed me to the hospital to see my father. That was how my parents found out I had gone to her. When my mother saw her she was shocked, she didn’t know whether to be angry or thankful. But in that moment, all that mattered was that help came.

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Though my father later passed away a month after in that hospital, but the experience taught me that asking for help is not something to be ashamed of. Sometimes, we wait too long, hoping things will change when help is just one conversation away.

I learned that the people we avoid might be the very people sent to lift us in our lowest times. It’s not about pride, most times we need others to survive, it is good to ask for help when you are in need but not in a way that depends on others too much. Life was not designed to be lived alone.

So if you're going through hard times, don’t keep it all inside. Talk to someone. Reach out, even if it’s to someone you never thought you would ask. You might be surprised by who shows up for you. Asking for help doesn’t make you weak it simply means you have been strong for too long, and it’s okay to let someone else be there for you too.

This is my response to this episode of #hiveghana community prompt week105

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