Where did you go my child?
You are lost to us and we do not know why?
We only have the memory of your smile, laugh and your brightness of youth.
Your bedroom remains the same as it did on that fateful day, the day you vanished without any clue as to why or how.
Your favourite stuffed animal awaits your return on your bed.
I still smell your scent on your favourite hoodie, never to be washed or given away, as that would mean hope no longer exists.
Here we wait without any word, no evidence and no leads.
Only some flyers remain that state “Have you seen this child?”
The anger and the fear are subsiding but the grief is ever present as it rolls over us like a wave.
Sometimes it is a gentle wave and then there are the rogue waves, the ones that hit hard.
Grief has its own agenda and it is never at our convenience.
We are expected to put on a brave face and be strong, when underneath we are only held together with some twine and scotch tape.
Ever so fragile, the next rogue wave may wash us away.
No headstone marks your life.
There is no finality or closure.
It comes to the point where we have to decide, do we cling to the grief and be forever lost ourselves or do we choose to live?
We carry you in our hearts forever more.
Good bye dear child, you may be lost but never forgotten.
Dedicated to all the parents of missing children and those that who are advocates of the cause.
D. Gushue
06 JUNE 2020