What Was Lost Is Now Found, Part 3

There once was a three year old girl who lived with her mother and father and four year old brother. The girl was cute and sweet, but very precocious too. She didn't get in trouble much, but when she did, she got in a LOAD of trouble.

One day, the mother took the girl and her brother shopping. They went to a store in a large mall in a very, very, large city. The mother was looking at clothes. The boy stood there patiently by his mother. The girl looked at the mother. The girl looked at her brother. And then she ran. She ran and ran. She ran out of the store and started going to other stores.

Meanwhile, the mother had discovered that the girl was gone. She asked the boy if he knew where his sister was, and he said "No, mommy. I'm sorry." The mother frantically looked for the girl. Minutes passed, and the mother still couldn't find the girl. Nobody seemed to want to help the mother find the girl either. The mother paused for a brief moment, and a woman came up to her. She said, "Have you lost a child?" The mother said "Yes, I have! Have you seen her?" The woman said "No, but I will go look for her." The mother gave her a description of the little girl. The woman said "You stay here and wait to see if the girl comes back." And the woman went off searching for the girl.

By this time, the girl had been gone for quite a while. She had wondered in and out of stores inside the mall. Finally, she decided to go outside and then went to a shoe store that was only accessible from the outside of the mall. The girl wandered through the aisles of the store, and a store worker finally came up to her. The clerk asked her if she would like some candy, and the girl said yes. The girl followed the clerk to the back room to get a sucker.

Just then, the woman who was searching for the girl came into the store. She walked up to the desk and asked if they had seen a little girl. Just then, the woman saw the girl in the back getting some candy from the other store clerk.

The woman took the girl back to her mother. The woman told her the story of how she found the girl. The mother asked her, "But how did you think to go to the shoe store when it was only accessible from the outside? And why did you still ask if they had seen her when you didn't see her in the store?" The mother thanked and thanked the woman. The mother told the story many times to the girl over the years and told her about her "guardian angel" who had found her that day.

And the girl grew into a grown up girl, and had her own children. She still thought about the woman sometimes, especially now that she was a mother and thought of how her own mother must have felt when her child was lost.

And then one day, the grown up girl was at a park with her husband and three children for an Easter Egg Hunt. There were so many people, many more than she had thought would come. She was watching her nine year old daughter collecting eggs while her seven year old daughter and four year old son were playing on a nearby slide. Every few seconds, the grown up girl would glance over at the slides. And then suddenly, the seven year old girl was at her side. The grown up girl said "Where is your brother?" and the seven year old said "He is still on the slides." The grown up girl went to the slides, but her son was not there. The grown up girl and her husband started calling for the boy and ran in different directions to find him. The grown up girl paused for a moment to look around, and a woman came up to her. She said "Have you lost your child?" The grown up girl said "Yes, have you seen him?" The woman said no, but she said that she would look for him. The grown up girl gave her a description of the boy, and the woman went off looking for him. The grown up girl asked that his name be announced over speakers. When she still didn't see the boy, the grown up girl decided to walk down the sidewalk and see if the boy had walked back to the car.

By now, it had been 15 minutes. The grown up girl was getting frantic. She thought of how she had been lost when she was young. She had been lost for much longer than 15 minutes. But it was a different time. People were different now. And it would be so much easier now, out here in the open, with all of the people at the park that day, for someone to just walk off with him.

The boy wasn't at the car. The grown up girl started walking back towards the park. The grown up girl started crying. It was too much for her to take. And then she saw it - the woman was running towards her. The woman started yelling "He has been found. He is with your husband." The grown up girl cried harder and started asking "How did you find him?" and then just thanked the woman over and over again.

If you haven't already guessed, this story is about Me. I am the little & grown up girl in the story. We lost Super last Saturday at the town's Easter Egg Hunt. I am still having nightmares about losing him. I'm still having him sleep with me every night so that when I wake up, I can see that he is here.

He was found by Mr. Simple wandering at another area of the park. Super started walking back when he heard his name announced, and then he saw Mr. Simple. The woman saw Super walking with Mr. Simple and gave Mr. Simple the 3rd degree to make sure that he really was his dad and not some person trying to act like his dad.

So on the way home, we talked with the kids again about what we should do if we get lost or if someone tries to take us. But I also told them the story about how I got lost one day and how a woman helped my mommy find me, and how many years later, a woman helped Super's mommy find him.

So thank you to the two women in my life that helped me - when I was lost, and when I had lost someone. I don't know the women's names, but I'll be forever grateful to you both. Foremost for helping with the situation, but also to help remind me that there are wonderful, caring people in the world. Thank you for the two guardian angels that were sent to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.