‘Blessed to be Alive’: How PA Woman Survived Attempted Suicide

Melissa Smith

(Philly.com) – Melissa Smith doesn’t remember much about Oct. 17, 2016.
The 26 year old called out from her job as a licensed practical nurse in a senior citizen facility that morning.

Her recently estranged husband picked up their two daughters.
Around 6 p.m., her mother, Laurie Lehman, noticed she had a text.

“Just wanted to tell all of you I love you,” Smith wrote. Lehman, 45, didn’t realize her daughter’s father and five adult siblings had gotten the same message.

About an hour later, Smith tapped out a Facebook message to a neighbor in her Maytown, Pa. townhouse complex, 100 miles west of Philadelphia.

“Call 911,” Smith wrote. “My door is unlocked, but don’t come in.” CONTINUE