I'm going to take a break from my normal fare for today's post and talk about the little girl who went missing from Waterville, a town an hour north of me, this past weekend. It's been all over the news up here in Maine since it happened, and has been getting national coverage more recently. This 20-month-old with a broken arm was last seen Friday night as she was put to bed, and was reported missing the next morning.
As a new father, I cannot imagine what it must be like to not know where your child is. Before my child was born when I would hear about a missing child, I would be concerned (like most of us would be), but it never resonated within me like this. In the pictures put up on news features and on internet articles, I keep imagining it being my child, and I am stricken with pure panic. I tell myself that I'd never let something like that happen to my beautiful daughter, but the panic isn't quelled by these attempts at reassurance.
As much as I think that I can protect my daughter from anything and everything, I know that in reality I cannot. There is just too much evil and bad things in this world for one man to stand guard against. The thought that a moment of distraction could be all that it takes for something to happen is every parents fear, but hearing that a child was taken from her crib while everyone in the house was asleep is almost too much to think about.
My heart goes out to the family of this little child. This is a heartbreaking experience made worse by the time of year. I hope with all my heart that there is a happy ending to this story.
5 Comments:
The badass geek has a heart. Who knew?
My youngest child is 31. It never gets any easier. When I read or hear of young children going missing my heart breaks because I don't know if I could survive if that had happened to one of mine. Several years ago my daughter called to tell me she had been in an accident. While she was riding her bike to work a man in a pickup truck T-boned her. It crushed her knee. I am so grateful that's all that happened to her. I went from normal to sobbing in seconds. My daughter says 'Mom, don't get upset' and I say 'I'm not upset. I'm relieved it's you calling to tell me about it'. Years and several surgeries later her knee is working again... sort of. But it's better by far than the alternative. I can't even bring myself to imagine as a parent what it would feel like to have your child just disappear. My heart breaks for those that must live through it.
Is there anything we should be on the lookout for? I mean, I'm on the complete opposite end of the coast, so I don't know how much I can do, but stuff like this just kills me, and it seems to be happening an awful lot in the news lately.
It is also not helpful that I watch an awful lot of Law & Order: SVU, so my immediate thoughts of what might happen to that little baby are absolutely terrible and I want to go out and find her right now. I need to control my media intake better. Or just become a cop.
I watched that on the news this morning. The mother and father seem a little dysfunctional but that is a spooky thought (especially with a new baby) that someone could take a child out of the house in the middle of the night. The dread of this not turning out well is heavy.
As a parent of a young child, I've had to be very cautious in my intake of such news stories. I struggle with them a bit, especially as so many don't end well and that makes it harder to bare the thought that I can't completely protect my child.
Post a Comment