April 23, 2019 was a hard day in which many lessons were learned.
Maria and I went to visit my sister, Marianne, and her family in Winston-Salem, NC for a couple of days. Maria was having a blast with her cousins, who are 8 and 5, running in the backyard and playing hide and seek. Maria is a visual learner and was given visual cues and rules while outside. I told her she could not go past the sidewalk in the front of the house and could not go into the woods that leads to small cliff in the back that drops to a creek. Marianne was sitting outside the front of the house grading papers and listening to the kids. I had the window open in the back and was listening to them play while working inside. It was Maria’s turn to be “it.” The boys ran to the front of the house to hide. After not hearing Maria for a minute we all started to check on her. She was nowhere. Maria was hot and a very slow runner to begin with so we assumed she could not have gone far or that she forgot she was “it” and maybe was hiding herself. We looked inside, outside, down the cliff and all around. After 5 minutes my heart began to sink and I knew she was gone. I called 911. Within 5 minutes from the call the Winston Salem police department had alerted the surrounding counties and they had dispatched 50 officers. They deployed the canines as well. While being kept on the line with the 911 operator I ran to neighbors houses and back down to the creek area. Marianne took her car to the local park and surrounding streets. Another 5 minutes.
15 minutes is a long time to not know where your child is. Every horrible thought was running through my mind. My first thought was that someone had to have taken her. Children with special needs are a pedophile’s dream and even at top speed she is just not that fast, so how far could she have gone? Being several states away from home makes everything 10x scarier too. How do I call Ed and tell him that his child is 600 miles away and missing?
Another 5 minutes later and I heard through the phone “maam, an officer has found her and is bringing her to the house.” My body just overflowed with relief and it all came pouring out of my eyes.
We still don’t know exactly how she ended up a block away. She had crossed at least one street (thank the Lord she was not hit). She had been searching for the boys and just somehow lost her bearings and couldn’t find her way back. We must have been looking one way while she must have been going another .
The Winston- Salem police department was amazing. They wasted no time in taking this call to the most serious level. The officer told us that time was of the essence in these cases. What would have happened to her had we waited another 5 minutes to call? What if she was found by someone without good intentions first? My mind can’t even wrap my head around all the possible things that could have happened. The officer said his 12 year old child with special needs has a tracker and it has saved his child more than once. I want so badly to say that Maria is just like every other kid, but she’s not. Yes, any child can get lost, but her chances are a thousand times higher, mainly because it is very easy for her to lose her sense of direction. In addition, the police officer could not understand her speech, so according to law enforcement, she is nonverbal.
When he opened up the back door of the car to let Maria out she was crying and said “I’m a good girl”. She had thought the police picked her up for being a “bad girl.” We have had several conversations since and she now understands that the police will always help her and I hope she is no longer afraid of them. (no more news for her). She is terrified of getting lost again, but that is not a bad thing.
Maria will be getting some kind of ID with a tracking device. If you have a child with special needs, I highly suggest you do the same. Save yourself the absolute terror and trauma of feeling like they are gone forever. Assume the worst now and be proactive.
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