My youngest son at age three—we lost him one summer night in a crowd on a boardwalk in NJ beach town.
With two other kids in tow, I thought my wife had him. She thought I had him.
It took us all of five seconds to realize he was gone. And I do mean gone.
The panic that set in was total and indescribable. I immediately went up to a policeman, described my son, what he wearing and the call went up and down the boardwalk.
In the meantime, I ran from booth to booth and asked people if they saw my son, and to notify the many police if they did.
I went through every emotion possible. I now was the father of a missing child. All the other intact families I saw caused my panic to increase with each desperate moment.
It took almost two hours to find him. He was just fine.
And he was a mile away from where we lost him.
The cops said he never cried. He just walked along with the crowd and everyone thought he belonged to someone else. He never made a fuss, he just had a grand old time.
He told the police that he went in and out of stores, booths, amusements to see what he wanted to see, and then he joined the crowd again.
Not a care in the world.
I tell you—that event aged me a few years in a few hours.
It never happened again. You have to be like a hawk over your children. It only takes a few seconds to lose them.
I broke out into a cold sweat just reading your story.
Two years ago we lost our boy with special needs, at 11 years old, the size of an eight year old, and he didn’t speak to most people, so we were panicking. It was after a fireworks display with hundred of people getting up to leave at once, and we each thought he was with the other. We went through all of what you went through but only for 15-20 minutes that lasted several hours in my mind. I could barely speak myself to describe him to everyone that was helping, and I was sobbing. Getting him back into my arms I literally couldn’t do anything but hold him and cry. (He DID go to a uniformed person like we taught him, and he DID speak, we were so proud) It is such a blessing to all of a sudden be saved from a forever hell.