The Longest Thirty Minutes of my life
Today my daughter, my five year old daughter, didn’t get on the bus to come home from school. For thirty long minutes she was missing, lost, with no one knowing for sure where she could be.
The bus company was alerted, her school teacher, the police and she was found by her teacher at a skating park not that far away from her school by her teacher.
In that short time a hundred nightmares gained life. I aged more years than I want to know, and I tried not to think of the might be’s what if’s and worse.
When the teacher pulled up in front of the house with our daughter in the back seat I nearly dropped. All I could think about was she was safe, none of the nightmares had caught her to use for their terrible form of fun. There would be no knock on the door from a police officer telling us the worst.
No one who isn’t a parent can imagine what a child being missing, even for such a short time can cause. I know I didn’t until it happened to us. Now I only hope that it is something I will never ever go through again.
The strangest thing of all had to be when my husband walked in to tell me Sarah was not on the bus was right in the middle of a phone call with Sarah’s teacher. One of the very issues she had called about was her concern that Sarah would not behave on the bus or would not get onto it due to a stubborn streak she has following instructions at times. She’s a bright child, too bright in some ways, as she has a desire to be in charge, to run things, to give instructions not to be the one following them. Because of that her teacher was right out of the door and looking for Sarah, for that thank you… both to her teacher who had the right idea in calling me to let me know her concerns, and to fate for it being today Sarah decided not to follow the rules about getting on her bus.
Whoever was looking after us, as a family, you have my gratitude for the safe return of my daughter.
The bus company was alerted, her school teacher, the police and she was found by her teacher at a skating park not that far away from her school by her teacher.
In that short time a hundred nightmares gained life. I aged more years than I want to know, and I tried not to think of the might be’s what if’s and worse.
When the teacher pulled up in front of the house with our daughter in the back seat I nearly dropped. All I could think about was she was safe, none of the nightmares had caught her to use for their terrible form of fun. There would be no knock on the door from a police officer telling us the worst.
No one who isn’t a parent can imagine what a child being missing, even for such a short time can cause. I know I didn’t until it happened to us. Now I only hope that it is something I will never ever go through again.
The strangest thing of all had to be when my husband walked in to tell me Sarah was not on the bus was right in the middle of a phone call with Sarah’s teacher. One of the very issues she had called about was her concern that Sarah would not behave on the bus or would not get onto it due to a stubborn streak she has following instructions at times. She’s a bright child, too bright in some ways, as she has a desire to be in charge, to run things, to give instructions not to be the one following them. Because of that her teacher was right out of the door and looking for Sarah, for that thank you… both to her teacher who had the right idea in calling me to let me know her concerns, and to fate for it being today Sarah decided not to follow the rules about getting on her bus.
Whoever was looking after us, as a family, you have my gratitude for the safe return of my daughter.
posted by Terri Pray | 2:52 PM
1 Comments:
Terri,
I held my breath reading about your daughter. Thank you for sharing this with us as it reminds us of how we must keep our eyes on our kids at all times.
I am so glad she is okay!
Hugs,
Rebecca
Chippewa Publishing
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