The Day I Lost My Son
How could I?
It was a typical Saturday afternoon; I decided to head into town (shopping mall) with my son, who was around five years of age; we parked up and headed into one of his favourite shops.
Of course, it was full of toys, the latest Star Wars figures, WWE wrestlers, and action men, the smile on his face is one I will never forget. He would study every detail of every figure; I could hear the story running through his head.
“Dad, which one can I have, please?” I never said he could have anything, just that I needed to get a few things for the house, toys were not on my agenda, but of course, he had different ideas, as all kids do.
We must have stayed in that shop for thirty minutes before telling my son the bad news that we were leaving. “Oh, dad, I’m not ready” however, we had to go.
Before you start thinking how cruel I was not buying him a toy, that was always going to happen, just before we head home, but there were things to buy now.
After coming out of the supermarket (grocery store), I saw a friend and went over to speak to them; we must have been talking for no longer than three or four minutes; then, after saying goodbye, we started to head for the car.
Suddenly I had a horrible feeling, and my worst nightmare was confirmed, my son had let go of my hand, I had not realised, and he was nowhere in sight. So, as you can imagine, panic set in.
My face started to burn, and my blood started to boil; how stupid can I be? I had lost my son; where can he be? I began to run in different directions to see if I could find him.
I started to call his name; people just looked at me; no one helped. I felt sick; I wanted him to be safe; all sorts of scenarios went through my mind, did someone take him? Did he walk off?
I knew he would be upset; I was helpless; what should I do? So I went to speak to the security, and they took the relevant details, and then the hunt was on.
Was he still here? I did not know how to explain what happened; the tears started to run down my face. I could not bear to think someone had taken him.
After nearly twenty minutes of searching, he was nowhere to be found; I threw up over the floor and fell to my knees with worry; I thought I would make the local news for the wrong reasons.
Just at that point, I had a thought; I got up and started running, the security chased after me; I ran into the first store we went in, he was not by the action men.
I ran to the WWE section, not there either; I took a deep breath before going to the Star Wars section, “Dad, can I have this one please?” said a voice; I burst into tears again and picked up my little boy and gave him the biggest cwtch (Welsh for cuddle) ever.
My son asked me why I was crying, “dad, if you do not have any money, I will leave it” now, that line just broke me even more; I felt the world had swallowed me up and spat me back out.
My son ended up with three Star Wars figures that day, and he was delighted; I was just relieved, and this mistake was never going to happen again.
I hope no one reading this has ever gone through this experience; take it from me; it was an awful experience to have been involved with; I was an irresponsible parent who was lucky that it turned out to be ok.
Other parents have not been as lucky as I was on that given day; my son wanted a toy and went to the shop to choose, whilst his dad was talking ironically, the shop was only about four meters away from where I was talking to my friend.
Please would you buy me a Ko-fi
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