I saw this sentence

> "中学生の時、みんなでやる行事はほとんど手伝えなくて。私はあまり学校行事に出ませんでした。手伝っていないのが申し訳なくて。"

The context is that character was invited to go out shopping in preparation
for a school event, and he wondered why as he hadn't really helped before and
was very happy about it.

My question is why there is -なくて at the end of the first sentence, but then
there is nothing. I've learned that it means "Do not do something and~", but
there is nothing after, just a punctuation mark. Is it related to the next
sentences after that one? Or is something else at play that I don't know yet?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-01T19:06:38.787
92794
2022-01-01T19:13:25.933
2022-01-01T19:13:25.933
50132
50132
question
grammar
Can -なくて connect one phrase with the next one, even though there is a punctuation mark in between the two phrases?