We heard about Ayla, Lisa, and Isabel, said a prayer for their safe return, and thanked the Lord our children were not missing like those little girls. We couldn't imagine being a parent of Madeleine McCann or Etan Patz, missing and long-presumed dead.
However, another such real-life nightmare has hit very close to home for those of us living on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. Caleigh Harrison from Gloucester was out for a walk along the shore in neighboring Rockport with her mother, four-year-old sister, and dog when their ball sailed over a wall in front of some summer cottages. The mother went to retrieve the ball. When she returned, two-and-a-half-year-old Caleigh was nowhere to be found.
Was she a victim of foul play or abduction by a mysterious man "seen" by her young sister? Did she fall off a footbridge between two beaches into a creek whose strong current leads out to sea? Thus far, none of these scenarios has been ruled out.
As soon as the story went public, my Facebook friends and I started posting articles about it, comments, and requests for prayer. One such friend even worked with the girl's grandmother! I discussed the situation with two mothers during a playdate not long after. One used to live in the area of the beaches and knows them well. She talked about the footbridge and demonstrated with her hands the pulling motion of the Atlantic Ocean as the tide went out, as it reportedly was doing when the midday incident occurred. She used phrases such as "wanting to throw up" and "a knot in the pit of my stomach" to describe her feelings upon hearing the news.
I nodded in solidarity. It is beyond horrible to think about that poor innocent toddler's fate.
As a beachgoing single mother by choice of two sons, the ordeal felt incredibly scary to me on a personal level. An old boyfriend once said to me, "When you have more children than there are parents in the family, you are outnumbered." I am outnumbered every day--a fact that really comes into play at the beach.
Singlehandedly managing young children at a beach is one of the most difficult tasks of any parent. Indeed, it has been for me.
First neither of my sons were what you'd call "fish." My eight year old was still reluctant to stick his face in the water despite having taken many swimming courses at two YMCAs and one aquatic center. This made for a serious aquatic impediment. Incongruously, the ocean--with its unpredictable waves, undertow, and current--was the body of water in which Christopher performed best. Make no mistake. He didn't swim in the ocean. He merely jumped through the waves and got knocked down and tossed by them. And he enjoyed it. He never got in trouble in the ocean, though I watched him vigilantly as he played in the water with his excellent swimmer friends. (As for myself, I was grateful to be a strong swimmer and former lifeguard, albeit never an ocean guard.) Then there was my younger son who avoided the ocean except to cool off his lower body, rinse off sand, or fill up his bucket.
Nonetheless, Charlie presented a huge challenge on the beach because he was A Wanderer. Dare I say he's gotten a little better since getting older? I'm not sure. At six he no longer absentmindedly toddled off or ran away willfully to exert his independence. Instead, he ambled away just as a course of being in his own little world. He could be very good all day playing beside me alone or with friends then suddenly disappear into a crowd of sunbathers, umbrellas, and sand toys just before it was time to leave. I have many war stories to tell. Still, praise the Lord, I always managed to find him.
Having resided on a coast my whole life except for my college years, I can't really image living inland for any substantial length of time. I expect that I would feel claustrophobic, needing to at least once in a while gaze out at the wondrous blue horizon.
The ocean is a source of beauty, recreation, relaxation, and renewal. It is an inspiration for magnificent art and enlightening writing. Winslow Homer, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Philbrick. Yet, lest we forget, it is also a source of great danger from drownings, shark attacks, and boating or scuba diving accidents.
I will continue to pray for Caleigh and her family.
No comments:
Post a Comment