COVER STORY 28 MARCH 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition Every 40 seconds someone in the world dies by suicide, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports rates have soared by more than 35% in the last two decades, hitting young people especially hard. Heather Palacios knows this battle firsthand. Having fought suicidal thoughts since early childhood and survived an almost fatal attempt as a young pastor’s wife, she is now on a mission to keep others alive. Through the nonprofit she founded, Wondherful Inc., she and her dedicated team have distributed more than 19,500 LifeBoxes filled with tools for hope and healing, encouraging people struggling thru mental crisis to seek help and choose life. She speaks at colleges, churches and businesses throughout the United States to reach the nearly 1.8 million people who attempt suicide each year, according to Wondherful Inc. Her message is simple but urgent: one more suicide is one too many; no one should fight this battle alone. An enthusiastic encourager, Palacios lights up a room when she enters, filling it with joy and gratitude for those around her. She brings that energy with her wherever she is called, often speaking life-giving words in the wake of tragedy. After the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, took the lives of 19 children and two adults on May 24, 2022, Heather partnered with a local church and distributed 600 LifeBoxes to survivors at a local civic center. She has spoken to students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, recently providing life boxes for members of their swim team after the loss of their 16-year-old teammate to suicide in December 2024. She was also invited to speak at school assemblies in Jamaica due to the high suicide rate there, providing an open forum where students could freely ask questions and receive direct, honest responses from someone who truly relates to their struggles. A retired peer counseling coordinator and current soccer coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Laura Rountree said Heather has spoken to students in their HOPE Club, which stands for Helping Overcome Problems Effectively, as part of the Florida Initiative for Suicide Prevention. The students “love her transparency, her energy, enthusiasm and realness. She's a giver who’s willing to help anybody she can — to encourage them, let them know that God has a purpose for them, that he created them uniquely; they’re special and to hold on and hang on. They just respond tremendously to her every time she shares.” What Heather shares is her personal struggle with suicide and the techniques and protocols she’s discovered that help keep her alive. How it began It all started in 1981 when Heather was 8 years old. “I was being bullied pretty severely,” she said. “I had gone to elementary school that day in Bowling Green, Ohio, and when I walked into the classroom, my desk was missing. I started to look around. All the kids were there huddled up and laughing. I spotted my desk. They had moved it to the corner of the classroom facing the wall. “So I went over there with my moon boots, winter coat and backpack to get my desk and put it back into the center of the classroom where it belonged. Then I noticed a piece of notebook paper on top of it. The title said, ‘Why We Hate Heather Funk.’ All the kiddos had signed different reasons, and I think that was the last straw for me that day. I just didn’t want to live anymore.” Palacios went home and wrote a letter with her intent to her grandparents, who turned it over to her parents, who called the local church. After accepting Jesus in her heart at the age of four, Heather grew up in the church and recommitted her life to the Lord while attending Judson University after a few years as “a prodigal kid in middle school and high school.” She married Raul Palacios, now executive pastor of Church by the Glades and First Baptist Fort Lauderdale, in 1999, but a year later she “just couldn’t reconcile being a Baptist pastor’s wife and having this temptation to take my life.” She said, “It was hard. I knew divorce was not an option and the only M.O. I knew when things were taking a drastic turn in my mind was take yourself out. So, very calculated, I went to a liquor store so I wouldn’t feel anything, went to the back of a parking lot on State Road 84 and began taking my life.” Since she hadn’t left a note and didn’t want her husband to think it was his fault, she called him. He was able to get to the scene, but because she was so frantic, he was unable to stop her and called 911. First responders were forced to sedate her, “Baker Acted” her, and she awoke in a mental health facility — a measure she now acknowledges she needed at the time. Since then Heather has developed her own personal protocol for survival that she leans on daily along with her deep abiding faith in God. It includes: • Christian counseling • Medication • Regular church attendance • Journaling • Outdoor activity • Maintaining boundaries • Knowing her worth “I’ve been doing this for 24 years now, and I’m a tactile person, so it’s good that it’s in my journal so I can see if I’m not giving myself outside activity (for example). When I can’t see the goodness of God in my mind, I need to see it in the earth. I need to see the flower bloom. I need to see the sun rise. It’s really important for me because my mind will go black, so I have to be intentional to go outside and see the goodness of God somewhere.” She often tells herself, “If I wake up breathing, that’s my proof to keep going.” Sending life in a box Heather is just as intentional about every LifeBox she curates. “I recognize a LifeBox can’t save someone. But the contents inside include all the things I’ve needed Left to right: Mebelyn “May” Lizardi, volunteer; Julie Russell, VP of operations; Heather Palacios, founder; Claudia Valentin, quality control t a r u f w a A ci t t i t r a o ai t v a t q c T v t a h H m t g p s f a J c a b t m CI i ‘ b g b y t One More Suicide Is One Too Many: Inside Heather Palacios’ Life-Saving Mission Photo Credit: Justus Martin
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