From dad’s suicide springs loving message

Her father’s suicide interrupted all the normal 17-year-old things. The night it happened, Nicole Leth had been worried about who would be her homecoming date, what grade she would get in Algebra 2 and whether her high school would win its football game.

Then, in an instant, her worries shifted to how she would go on without her best friend and protector.

Losing her dad, Richard, in October 2010 was “heartshattering,” Leth, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, said Wednesday in an email. But it also gave her a sense of purpose: to use every word she wrote and piece of art she created to try to save others.

That attempt to change someone else’s path now takes an unlikely form: a pink billboard on U.S. Highway 71 in Kansas City with the message: “YOU ARE HUMAN. YOU ARE LOVEABLE. YOU ARE STRONG. YOU ARE ENOUGH.”

“I had been noticing a lot of people hurting in the world, anxiety at an alltime high and compassion at an all-time low,” said Leth, 26. “I felt powerless in the face of it. But then I remembered 17-year-old Nicole bravely vowing to get down in the mud and fight to make beauty in the face of hardship.”

The “affirmation billboard” went up July 22 and will remain until midaugust, Leth said. She said she saved money from her job as a yoga teacher for a few months to pay for the display, which cost her $1,200.

Leth doesn’t want this billboard to be her last. She hopes to raise money to lease a billboard somewhere in her city each month for the next year, especially in highertraffic areas. Leth has set up a fundraising page to defray the costs.

She’s already brainstorming messages she might put on future billboards: “Your heartbreaks don’t define you. You define you.” “You are bigger than the things that make you feel small.” And “I believe in you. Will you believe in you?”

Leth also bought a fullpage advertisement in a local newspaper that will display her original message this fall, she said.

Leth’s advocacy comes at a crucial time. More than 47,000 Americans died by suicide in 2017, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The national suicide rate has been rising over the past decade, making suicide the nation’s 10th-leading cause of death.

A photo of Leth’s billboard was shared on Facebook more than 3,600 times in the three days after it was posted. Hundreds of comments expressed gratitude.