Life gets tough sometimes. You deal with a lot that goes on around you, and there are also times that you’re fighting your own battles on the inside. It happens to everyone, at one point or another, and everyone deals with these battles differently. For one 15-year-old girl suicide seemed to be the answer to everything that was bugging her. But, thankfully, she was saved.
Utah Transit Authority bus driver Shelly Monson was on duty two weeks ago when she saw something jarring, knowing she had to act as quickly as possible. She was on her return to Ogden after delivering a bus in Salt Lake City. But, things didn’t go as smooth as they usually do.
Talking about the moment that she saw the 15-year-old girl try to take a plunge off the bridge, Shelly recollects: “Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walking on I-15. Then I saw a leg go up on the barrier. So I flew across traffic and I parked the [UTA] car. I ran and it felt like my feet weighed 5,000 pounds. I ran as fast as I could, screaming ‘Please don’t, please don’t.’ When I got to her, I hooked her arm and her leg and I held her.”
The UTA driver recalls the girl instantly panicking and crying for her mother. Shelly says she held her to her chest and let the teenager cry it out. She felt for the young woman because she has kids of her own who are that age, so the incident almost hit home.
By that time, another driver had stopped nearby and come over. They called the police and once authorities arrived at the scene, Shelly let the cops take over and she started making her way back to the bus. A patrol officer chased after her to get her story before she left.
Shelly says that she hasn’t been the same, emotionally, since the incident. But, it’s not something that she did for attention or applause: “I don’t do things for recognition. I just do it because it is what God would want us to do. You should just be a good person to everyone because everyone is important.”
The UTA Board honored Shelly with an award and tagged her as a “hero” for what she did.
She also has a message for those who are in need of help: “Find someone to talk to. Get it out. Don’t hold it inside because that’s where it eats at you. If you can’t find anybody, look me up on Facebook because I will talk to you.”
Heroes are all around us, and Shelly is an amazing example of one.
Click on the link below to watch how another bus driver, Darnell Barton, saved a young woman from taking her own life in a separate incident. The content in the video below is sensitive.
