Stories don’t always stop once they’re published. This is what it’s like getting the endings readers often miss out on

The story I wrote about an Iranian asylum seeker who feared death if she didn’t get to Germany ended on a dark note, but what followed during our correspondence produced an entirely different narrative

It’s not uncommon for journalists to stay in touch with the people they write about, sometimes for years afterwards. That’s especially true when you meet someone in a vulnerable situation or going through a difficult time in their life.

Sometimes what comes after the story is printed is even more dramatic than the story itself. But the news isn’t like Netflix – readers don’t usually get to follow characters as they go on with their journey. And so journalists carry these unpublished endings with them.

A happy one came to me recently. I met a woman named Simin in a migrant centre in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2017. I had been travelling along the European migrant trail to talk to the people who were still trying to make it across the continent despite a crackdown at the borders.