AUBURN, Calif — If you drive by the Foresthill Bridge, you'll miss it. You'll miss a message you may need to read.
"The world is a better place with you in it," reads one of the hundreds of notes hanging on the bridge.
The notes are placed with a purpose and each one carries a message from the heart. Notes of Hope: Suicide Prevention continues to hang them on the bridge because they are saving lives, even though vandals like to take them down.
"We posted 360 notes on Sunday and they were all torn down and now there are another 400 up," said Brittney Hendricks, the woman who started the group.
The last time someone decided to take down the notes, they forgot one and that single note saved Jim Ross' life.
"It just gave me hope; hope enough to carry on," Ross said near the spot he found the note.
Ross came to the Foresthill Bridge on Easter Sunday to take his own life. He knew the notes existed, but he still had a plan.
"I just wanted to see one note, one note. I walked onto the bridge and didn't see any. I purposely didn't look down on the edge. I didn't want to see. I walked a little farther and I saw one note," Ross said.
Ross doesn't remember what it said, but it was enough for him to step back, call a friend and walk back to his car.
"It was a feeling of happiness, even as numb as I was. Because that's what I came up here for," he said.
Since then he's been seeking help. He called Notes of Hope and shared his story.
"I had mixed feelings of talking on camera. But I'm not afraid of the stigma cause I've dealt with it for years and, as broken as the system is, I want to show people there is hope, even if there it is just a note on a bridge. Because sometimes that can be more than any counselor and medicine because that's love," he said.
Ross is now the eighth person who has called to say the notes saved them from suicide.
"I'm a firm believer that even though a vandal tore down the notes. That note was for Jim" Hendricks said.
That is the lesson on this bridge. You never know what someone is going through so a message of hope and love could save them on their darkest day.
"I want people to know it saved my life. And I didn't have anyone holding my hand on the bridge that day. But a note like what we see now is what it took. I hope they keep coming from all over the world," Ross said.
Continue the conversation with Madison on Facebook.
WATCH MORE on ABC10:
After hundreds of notes filled with loving and inspiring words were ripped off Foresthill Bridge, Brittney and Jon Hendricks are continuing their mission of sending a message to those who are contemplating suicide.