Commuter finds ripped up Christmas card, pieces it together to reveal heartbreaking message

[The reassembled card, as posted to Reddit (Reddit)]

A commuter recently found a ripped up Christmas card on the subway and pieced it back together to reveal its intimate message.

The commuter was riding a train on the Pakenham line of the Melbourne Metro when they found a Christmas card torn to pieces laying on a seat.

That individual, who posts on the website Reddit with the less-than-poetic user name “Burritobattlefield,” decided to piece together the card and then share its message with the internet.

Their Reddit post was titled “I found a ripped up Christmas card on the train so I put all the pieces back together…”

Accompanying the post is an image of the pieced together card. The inscription reads:

“Have a happy Christmas PS. Stop drinking, get help from someone. Bad things happen to good people sometimes, but how you react to these things is what defines you. You always have a choice, there are better things ahead for you but its in your hands, its your responsibility.”

The card is not addressed to anyone, and it is unsigned.

Commenters quickly identified the metro as Melbourne’s, thanks to the funky seat coverings that can be seen in the background of the image.

The author and receiver of the card remain a mystery.

The post sparked two lively debates among commenters, the first about which city’s metro has the ugliest decor (it appears to be a tie between Melbourne and New York’s Penn Station), and the second about depression and alcohol abuse, particularly during the holidays.

That second conversation hit a nerve with many readers.

Some offered to lend an ear to those in need of help:

Writes Oilfield____Trash:

“I would just like to say that if anyone ever needs someone to talk to, shoot me a line. There seems to be some depression this time of year.”

Others pondered the reasons behind their own former alcoholism:

Writes Endoman13:

“As an alcoholic myself (one year sober) I gotta say, there really wasn’t anything particularly bad that happened to me. I’m married, have a good job, a house all that. I just loved booze. I loved getting drunk. I drank so much I became physically addicted then would drink just to get the shakes to stop….so on and so forth until my liver almost gave. Point is some people just drink.”

Other Redditors pondered the intimate nature of the card and how it provides a moment of insight into a stranger’s private life. One user described this sudden realization of the complex private lives of others as “sonder,” and posted a link to the following definition, from “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”

“Sonder: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”

Indeed, the card does provide a moment of sonder, and we hope that whoever this card was written for gets the help they need and deserve.