{"id":13996,"date":"2025-08-25T11:42:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T18:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=13996"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:46:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:46:20","slug":"people-are-awesome-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2025\/08\/25\/people-are-awesome-2\/","title":{"rendered":"People Are Awesome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from People<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young Dad Was Getting Ready to Leap from Golden Gate Bridge \u2014 Then the ‘Miracle’ of a Stranger’s Voice Stopped Him<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Berthia unexpectedly helped save Kevin Briggs’ life. Now the pair, “more like brothers” than friends, are looking back on the day that changed them both<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Johnny Dodd<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"California
Kevin Briggs talks with Kevin Berthia (in white) at the Golden Gate Bridge in March 2005. John Storey \/ San Francisco Chronicle \/ Polaris<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the worst morning of his life,\u00a0Kevin Berthia<\/a>\u00a0awoke and, after years of fighting with depression, decided that he was going to drive to the Golden Gate Bridge and jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berthia, who was 22 years old at the time and living in Oakland, Calif., had never been to the famed landmark before and had to repeatedly ask for directions along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But minutes after parking in a lot at the north end of the bridge on March 11, 2005, he left his keys in the ignition and took off walking along the 1.7-mile expanse, glancing down at the San Francisco Bay, telling himself, \u201cThe water is my freedom. I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before long, the young man who had just lost his job and was overwhelmed by medical bills after the recent premature birth of his daughter scrambled over the railing and soon found himself balancing on a tiny metal conduit that ran along the outside of the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The frigid water of the bay churned 220 feet below him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started my countdown,\u201d Berthia recalls now. \u201cAnd I braced myself for impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then something unexpected happened. Two decades later, Berthia still refers to it as \u201ca miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at People<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from People Young Dad Was Getting Ready to Leap from Golden Gate Bridge \u2014 Then the ‘Miracle’ of a Stranger’s Voice Stopped Him Kevin Berthia unexpectedly helped save Kevin Briggs’ life. Now the pair, “more like brothers” than friends, are looking back on the day that changed them both By Johnny Dodd On the worst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}