LENOX TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — We have all been there. We experience moments when life is relentlessly pushing down on us. Now, a moment caught on camera as a Macomb County deputy helped someone overwhelmed by stress, is reminding us, we are not alone.
It happened after a call came in about a driver who had pulled over on the side of the road. The caller wanted to make sure the driver was OK.
“You say you don’t want to hurt yourself right?” said Deputy Jacob Thorne with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.
When Thorne and Deputy Fred Parisek checked on the driver it became clear that he had a lot on his shoulders.
When he was asked if they could help him, he said, “I could use a hug.”
Thorne gave that hug.
Deputies say the sheriff’s office asked the man for permission to share this video, and he agreed. They hope it reminds people that there is help out there. It is a lesson Thorne, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan after Sept. 11, says he had to learn through experience.
“When I came out of the military, I was only 23. I did three tours. It weighed so much on me losing friends,” he said.
Thorne says he talks often to his wife and fellow veterans, and when needed, professionals.
“There’s things that happened to me when I was in the military and I wouldn’t talk about it because I thought it would make me less of a man. And once I got over it and talked, it relieved a lot of stress out of my life,” he said.
And he says we all need to — with intent — show care for each other.
“A hug goes a long way,” Thorne said. “It reassured me that things I went through years ago, when I saw that young man's face, I knew he was going through something similar to what I went through back in the day.”
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is now 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If you are in crisis, dial 988. Help is only a phone call away.
