hi everybody! i'm not sure if anyone remembers me but about a month ago i posted here asking for advice bc i (16f) had overheard my older brother crying late at night. i just wanted to update if anybody is interested. i want to thank everybody who commented. i got some really good advice.

my brother is not the type of person who's physically affectionate so the day after i made my post, i went out and bought some chocolates and stuff and left it in his room. he asked me if i was the one who'd done it and i said yes. he asked me why and i just said that i missed him and i had noticed he was looking a bit down so i thought about cheering him up, and then i hugged him

i thought i would have to give him time and space before he was willing to talk but his reaction was totally unexpected. he didn't cry but he got weirdly tense and ended up confessing that he had been having a hard time recently. we sat together in his room and spoke for a long time. he was talking about uni and the friends he'd made there, and apparently one of his mates, while driving back home for the holidays, had gotten into a terrible road accident. he was in the hospital for a week or so and my brother got the news a few days ago that he didn't make it.

i don't know if i was any help, i was sitting there quiet, letting him speak and at the end of it, i gave him a hug again. he said i was the first person he told and he didn't want "help" from other people but it had clearly affected him badly. i asked him if he would consider therapy or something and he said no, so i guess he wants some space to grieve? but he looked as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders. later on he ended up telling our parents what happened, and contacted his mate's family who invited him to the funeral. the rest of the holidays went well, our dad bought the whole family f1 tickets for christmas so we have that to look forward to:) he's going back to uni soon but he told me he was glad he could open up to someone.

thank you everybody who helped again:) if there's any more advice that people have i would love to hear it!