Delilah Rene Luke is better known by just her first name, and best known for being the self-proclaimed Queen of Sappy Love Songs.
She’s a nationally-syndicated radio host who takes calls from listeners every night and who then dedicates a romantic ballad in their honor.
Tragically, however, she’s also known these days as a mother who lost of her son to suicide.
Earlier this month, Delilah broke the horrible news to Facebook followers that her child, Zack, had taken his own life, detailing how the young man had been battling Depression for years.
“My heart is broken beyond repair and I can not fathom how to go on… but I have to believe he is at peace with the Lord and that God will get us through,” wrote Delilah at the time.
Now, Delilah is opening up to People Magazine about her late son.
“He was my wild child; 13 broken bones, umpteen trips to the hospital with appendicitis, tonsillitis, a fractured skull. He was wild but so so so sweet,” the radio star says.
(Of amazing note: Zack one of Delilah’s three biological children, the other 10 – yes,10! – were welcomed through adoption).
Describing Zack as a “faithful friend to the outcast and the troubled,” Delilah says a December 2016 car crash, followed by a break-up and an illness, prompted a downward spiral.
“When he found out he wouldn’t graduate he spiraled into depression, and was honest about it,” says Delilah, who quickly “found him doctors, a fabulous counselor and support group.”
Did the suicide come as a shock?
It sounds that way.
“He was doing so well,” Delilah says.
“He was looking forward to making up his missed credits, graduating and starting film school. He was fascinated with science fiction and time travel and began to talk about the book A Wrinkle in Time and quantum physics.”
We don’t know how Zack killed himself, but his mom confirms her son left a note.
“His goodbye note did not mention sadness, anger, angst or depression, just a pressing madness about feeling like this world was not his home,” she says.
Delilah has been divorced three times and lost an adopted son to complications from sickle cell anemia in 2012.
She’s taking a leave of absence from her radio show and social media.
“The lady who is there for everyone else every single night now needs our love and our prayers sent right back to her,” says Delilah’s friend and rep Aaron Crisler.