On my daily commute to work this morning, I began to think about the day’s work and all the problems I needed to solve; that is, until I saw a truck in the lane in front of me that changed my focus. The truck had one of those stickers on the back window which starts with the words “in loving memory of..”. Whenever I see one of those stickers, I immediately calculate the age of the person from the years displayed, and then say a little prayer. The age is always of someone who is a teenager or in their early 20’s. Suffering a loss of someone at that age is probably one of the most painful things a person can go through. This person was 18.
But on the other side of the truck’s back window, there was another sticker. In large letters, it gave a web site for suicide prevention. Then I looked down at the tag and saw the personalized license plate which read “ASK4HLP”. My heart sank.
This truck had a message to tell. The driver was wearing their heart on their truck. There wasn’t much I could do from my car, except remind myself that the next time I have an urge to honk my horn at someone, I should think twice. You never know what they may be going through. And for a couple of seconds’ difference in time that it takes me to get where I am going, it could make a world of difference in that person’s day. What if we could all see what the other person was wearing on their car or truck? Would we act differently? What would your license plate say?
honoring the request of the person in the truck
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/