Child abduction is something people usually don't think about until they meet it face to face, they are either touched by it, or they might be reminded by a past memory. Child abduction has crossed my pass 3 times in my lifetime but I want to keep it away from my family and others
Many years ago when I was younger in Wisconsin, my wife told me that she had heard on the News that a child had been abducted and found murdered. It was a very sad story to hear, I was touched, but I never gave it much though after that.
When I was about 6 or 7 years old growing up in Texas I was walking alone on a country road when a car with two men stopped to offer me a ride. They open the door and told me to get in and that they knew my father and they would drive me home. My instincts told me to say nothing but run, and don't look back until you get home safe. I did exactly what I knew I should do even though I had never heard about child abduction. I never shared this experience with my parents or anybody else. It became a lost memory for many years until one day when I stood in front of a school full of students and staff in the auditorium and I shared my memory.
In 1993 my first granddaughter who loved me, who liked to spend time with me, and stole my heart was abducted and murdered at the age of five. Life has never been the same since that day. I try hard to live a stable life but it is not an easy task. When I think I am walking on an upright world that make sense I realize that my world always seems upside down. Life must continue regardless, I live it day by day, I always carry the memory of my granddaughter Alie, and there are many others like my family in the world. Richard Berrelez, May 8, 2014.
