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By Mihar Dias December 2025
I came across a Facebook post recently — one of those rare algorithmic gifts that makes you pause mid-scroll shared at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NqWqzoAS7/
It featured a grandmother, a train, and a few lines of wisdom so quietly profound they linger long after the screen goes dark.
The grandma’s saying was simple:
“Life is like a train, child. You don’t stay at every stop, and not everyone rides with you until the end.” https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NqWqzoAS7/
At first glance, it reads like the kind of gentle aphorism many of us grew up with — the sort murmured while cooking, sewing, or doing the small domestic rituals that somehow doubled as philosophy lectures.
As children, we heard these sayings the way we heard background music: present, comforting, but largely ignored.
The Facebook post admits as much. As a child, the writer didn’t really understand the line. It sounded quaint, old-fashioned, filed away mentally with other grandma-isms that felt wise but impractical.
Only later — when age, loss, and lived experience began collecting their quiet toll — did its meaning reveal itself.
When you’re young, the train of life is loud, crowded, and fast. Everyone is on board. School friends, neighbours, colleagues, relatives — all packed into the same noisy compartments. There’s laughter, ambition, chatter, and the unspoken assumption that this ride will never end. Seats are plentiful. Time feels infinite.
Then the stops begin to matter.
Some people step off because life redirects them elsewhere — new cities, new families, new priorities.
Others leave without warning, abruptly removed by circumstances beyond explanation or fairness. Their empty seats remain, and we learn the hard way not to stare at them for too long.
As the journey continues, the carriage grows quieter. The crowd thins. Conversations deepen. Silence becomes less frightening.
That’s when the grandmother’s wisdom, as quoted in the Facebook post, finally makes itself understood. She never suggested pretending departures don’t hurt. Nor did she encourage clinging desperately to every fellow passenger. Instead, she offered something more grounded: acceptance without cynicism, gratitude without denial.
The secret, she said, was not to mourn everyone who leaves, but to cherish those still sitting beside you. And to look out the window — because the scenery keeps changing. Sunrises, fields, cities, mountains. Different phases, same journey.
The post closes with words that feel especially suited to a weekend read, when we’re briefly allowed to slow down:
“Don’t be afraid when the train empties out. Be grateful you had company for as long as you did. And when your stop finally comes, step off with peace, knowing you traveled well.” https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NqWqzoAS7/
Everyone should have a grandmother like this — learned not just through books, but through living. Someone who understood that life is not about controlling who stays, but about honouring who came along for the ride. Someone who knew that impermanence isn’t a flaw in the system — it is the system.
Life really is like a train: full of arrivals and departures, noise and quiet, joy and loss. So, if we’re lucky, by the time we approach our final station, we won’t be counting who left too early.
We’ll be grateful for the view, the conversations, and the wisdom passed down — perhaps through a Facebook post — reminding us that the journey was beautiful not because it was perfect, but because it was ours.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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