Scary situation. I think you summed it up pretty well w/ the "lost soul/lost child" analogy. Glad to hear it had a happy ending, and that everyone's natural instinct was to take action!

Uhm. That made me cry in my coffee....

Good story. I like America. :)

Beautiful, that's how it should always be...

I lost my sixteen year old niece one morning at the Eastern Market in Detroit. Thought I was going to die as I was looking for her. Could have wrung her neck when I found her and she told me she stopped following me thru the mass of people to look at some pretty cupcakes.

It's terrible when you do lose your child to death and she never comes home again. People told me they would die, or go crazy, or some other drastic thing. I sort of felt guilty that I put one foot in front of the other and didn't die, didn't go crazy, just fell into the worst depression known to man. I would not wish this feeling on my worst enemy.

the first person i thought of when i read this is maribeth, because i knew she'd know exactly what you're talking about. :( and the second person was a fellow photographer's baby daughter who tragically drowned last week. just not the kind of scene you can get out of your mind, nor should you :(
so glad that boy was ok.

so glad the little boy was found, that IS my biggest worry with my kids getting older and more out there in the world.

Maribeth, I'm so terribly sorry. I'm actually very close to Katie's age, and my mother and father almost called me Katie. She was a beautiful girl, and I have no words to express anything meaningful. Your granddaughter is beautiful (as is her mom) and lucky to have such a loving, strong grandmother in her life.

And Chris - yay for Orange Crush!