LOST and…

“I thought you had Ruth!” 
“I thought you had her!”
To our horror, Val and I realised that our two year old daughter was somewhere by herself on the inter island ferry between the North and South Island of New Zealand. Our catastrophizing thoughts multiplied as we took our older daughters, Rebeccah and Sarah with us to hunt for her. What if she went overboard? What if she wandered into a cabin somewhere? What if we never find her? 
I rushed over to the bar to ask a barman if he had seen a little girl wandering past. He ignored me and turned away. Val was going deck to deck frantically calling and looking. Nothing. I went back on the top deck and looked over the side. If Ruth had gone over she wouldn’t have survived the impact and swirling waters of Cook Strait. Keep looking! 
We met at the top of some stairs to restart our panicked search and then heard Ruth. She was crying and being comforted by a kind older woman. Never has a hug been so good as relief and joy flooded over us. 
Similar kindness, but on a much bigger scale was shown just before Christmas 2024, when a missing teen Maia Johnston was found injured but alive after being lost for 42 hours near her mother’s Upper Hutt home (Wellington). The local community and police search and rescue worked through two nights to find her. When police delivered the good news to Maia’s mum Amy, she was in disbelief and then after a brief silence, she and the searchers erupted, sharing tears and hugs. Amy simply said, “It’s OK. I have my girl.” 
All those years ago, Val and I had our girl too. 



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