NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — When any of us experience pain or loss, it can feel natural to keep to ourselves, stay quiet, and try to heal on our own.
But sometimes it's important to share stories and speak your truth because you never know who is listening.
"We met two weeks ago right there at that corner. You yelled my name and now we're what? Best friends," said Officer Tommy Norman.
A chance encounter at the morning bus stop created a connection between Officer Norman and 9-year-old Luis.
"I realize that I'm probably not that special to everybody but I feel like I'm special now," Luis said.
Luis and his mom live in North Little Rock and their family is from Guatemala. Luis's little sister passed away years ago and more recently he lost his dad to suicide.
Known for his community policing efforts, Officer Norman posted on Facebook about his new friend Luis, and the unimaginable loss he's already felt at such a young age.
Among his millions of followers, this story hit home for Scott and Lisa Hill.
"My wife likes to watch a lot of the videos with Officer Norman. I haven't really seen a lot of them, but I hear his deep voice on there every once in a while and she was pretty excited this last week and said, hey you got to come over here I want you to see this little kid. And it was Luis," Scott explained.
The Hills live in northern California nearly 2,000 miles away— so another connection was created; this one, through shared experience. Their son, Garrett, took his own life earlier this year.
"And his spirit, though, is so much like Luis, just a loving kid caring kid," he added. "Something just said hey, let's road trip and take Garrett's bike out to Luis."
So the Hills embarked on a 28-hour, cross-country road trip, to hand-deliver Garrett's old bicycle to Luis, connecting the two families with hope and healing.
"Luis just seemed like the perfect person to pass this bike onto," Lisa said. "It just brings us a lot of joy, and I think helps heal our hearts somewhat too with the loss of our son."
This new friendship was made by simply sharing stories and creating connections.
"As mean, as cruel as this world can be, this story right here to me, will change people's lives. It will," Officer Norman said.