Kofi was the kind of man everyone seemed to remember only when life became heavy.
When people lost jobs, they called Kofi.
When rent was due, they called Kofi.
When they needed advice, connections, favors, or comfort, somehow his number was always easy to find.
And Kofi always answered.
He laughed loudly, listened patiently, and helped quietly. He never wanted people to feel abandoned because he knew what loneliness felt like.
But slowly, something inside him began to ache.
One evening, after returning home exhausted from work, Kofi sat alone in the dim light of his small room. His phone buzzed again.
Another message.
“Bro, I need your help.”
He stared at the screen for a long moment before placing the phone face down on the table.
Not one person had asked him that week how he was doing.
Not one.
The strange thing was that Kofi was surrounded by people, yet he often felt invisible beyond what he could provide.
Days later, while walking through town, Kofi passed an old shoe repairer sitting under a faded umbrella. The old man smiled warmly and called out, “Young man, you look tired.”
Kofi laughed softly. “Is it that obvious?”
The old man nodded. “People who carry everyone else usually walk like that.”
Something about those words stopped him.
Kofi sat down beside him, and for the first time in a very long while, someone spoke to him without needing anything in return. They talked for almost an hour about life, disappointments, football, family, and how human beings had become experts at networking but beginners at genuine care.
Before Kofi left, the old man said quietly, “Never become useful at the cost of becoming unseen.”
That sentence followed him home like an echo.
That night, Kofi began thinking about all the people he himself had forgotten to check on unless he needed something from them. He realized the problem was bigger than selfishness. People had become so consumed by survival, ambition, and pressure that they were forgetting how to simply be present for one another.
So Kofi started doing something small.
Every Sunday evening, he chose one person and sent a message with no request attached.
“Just checking on you.”
“How is your heart?”
“I hope life is being kind to you.”
At first, people were confused.
Then slowly, something beautiful happened.
Some conversations lasted hours. Some people admitted they had been silently struggling. Others said no one had checked on them in months.
And Kofi realized something powerful:
Human beings do not only need help when they are drowning.
Sometimes they simply need to know they are remembered before they disappear beneath the water.
