Nighttime rally stops tend to take my breathe away, and tonight is no different. We arrive at a park next to a lake just as the sun begins to set. There are an uncountable amount of lit candles everywhere, all along the perimeter of the lake, and on all the tables; so many tables, and they are all loaded with missing person posters, flyers, buttons, and giveaways. As I begin to carry our things and set up our table I am already anxious, anticipating a highly charged vigil... Most of the missing person's being honored tonight are children; young children, teens, and young adults. The group gathered includes many children, schoolmates of the missing, siblings of the missing, children of the missing, and of course parents and relatives of the missing. Often it takes events like these to remember all the children that are left behind when someone goes missing. We may hear they had children or young siblings, but often we only see the adults who take the family representative role in speaking out.
Tonight's rally was organized by the family of Lindsey Baum. She was 10 years old when she went missing from the small town of McCleary on 6-29-09. She was walking home from a friend's home, a route she knew well and walked often. A short walk down a densely populated suburban street. On this evening, however, she never arrived home. I meet many members of her family, and some of her friends. 12 or 13 year old children who have experienced a tragic occurrence that many adults cannot even fathom. What must they think? How can they comprehend a friend their age vanishing? Do they cling to their parents? Do they worry about disappearing themselves?
Lindsey's mother speaks first and then encourages the other families to share their stories. We hear from the family of Teekah Lewis. Teekah was only 2 years old when she disappeared from Tacoma on 1-23-99. A shy toddler who was frightened of strangers, Teekah was abducted from a local bowling alley where she had been on a normal family outing. I glance down at Teekah's flyer, it shows her age progression to 14 years. I cannot even imagine how this family feels, and I was a mother of a missing child. The family of Alyssa McLemore share the story of a 21 year old young woman who went missing from Kent on 4-9-09. Alyssa lived with her grandmother and dying mother. She had called to say she was on her way home, she never made it. Her mother passed away 3 days later. One day after her disappearance a 911 call was placed from her cell phone. The female caller asked for help and then the line went dead. The authorities were unable to get a location of the caller, although they do believe it originated in the Kent area. Alyssa had a 3 year old daughter at the time , I meet this now 6 year old beautiful child, along with Alyssa's sister, who told me Alyssa never would have left her daughter. Danica Childs vanished on 12-21-07, also from the Kent area. She was 17 years old at the time of her disappearance and left her cell phone, purse, and coat never to be seen again. Another family's pain readily on display. Christopher Virdell went missing on 2-19-12. He is 18 years old and was last seen leaving a friends house to catch a bus to work. I had met his mother when I first arrived, immediately identifying the raw emotion of someone to whom this is all so new. Fresh to the missing person's world, unsure of so many things. It breaks my heart to know that she may become more like the rest of us, comfortable in this type of setting. Of course I gravitated right to her, as I always do to mom's of missing teenaged boys...
After the balloon release we steered the families to our banner so that they could all sign it. This is the first time since I've been on the tour that we have done this. At previous stops we directed the family members to sign along the edges in the border area. However, this was a large group so we just started handing out markers. In the dark, we just let them at the banner without any direction. As we watched most found the faces of their missing loved one and wrote heart-wrenching pleas and love yous....
Elisa Stirling
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