Mother who lost son to distracted driving urges friends to put down phones

ByELIZABETH MERRILL
December 10, 2015, 12:47 PM

— -- PILOT MOUNTAIN, N.C. -- She was a private person for most of her 35 years, not the type who puts a giant sticker on her car so someone will pay attention. The letters are big and white and take up nearly half of the back window of Nikki Cline's black Volkswagen Beetle. When her husband, Mike, saw it, he thought it was too loud and suggested something smaller, like a bumper sticker. "I am loud," she told him. "That's how I want it."

She decided on the sticker this past summer, on her commute to work. Her four-cylinder engine was puttering along a half-hour drive to Winston-Salem when a man in the next lane almost hit her. He was all over the road, and on his cellphone. He was old enough to be her father.

Nikki prayed that morning that she'd wind up beside him at the next light. If she did, she'd tell him. She'd tell him about Gage Edwards.

The traffic aligned, and they found themselves side-by-side at the next stop. Nikki motioned for him to roll down his window, and he complied. She told him their story, and the man's face turned white. At that moment, she decided on the sticker.

I lost my son to texting while driving. W8 2 TXT

The sign gets all kinds of reactions. Some people stare, some honk and wave, others mouth, "I'm sorry." They don't know the boy behind it or that, some days, the message is the only thing that keeps her going.