For a week following Jadin’s death, Joe Bell lay in bed, beating himself up, wondering what he could — should — have done differently to help his son.
In the face of relentless bullying at high school, the openly gay 15-year-old had confessed to his parents six months earlier that he’d been having suicidal thoughts. Bell and his wife got their son into counseling, and Jadin appeared to be doing well.
Then he hanged himself.
Racked with guilt, Bell chided himself over scolding Jadin for smoking a few days before the hanging. The Oregon man worried that he couldn’t survive this grief.
Bell knew he had to do something. Then it came to him: He’d walk across the country, sharing Jadin’s story.