About a month ago a friend I know went missing. Seriously. She went missing for real.
Everything at first was normal. It was the beginning of April and I had been communicating with her about five times a week via email and facebook as we had been working on a project together. Then my life started to get really busy with training and competitions fast approaching and I realized I hadn’t spoken to her in a few days so I sent an email outlining some issues regarding the project.
No response. At this time I didn’t panic because I figured she was busy. Not crazy busy like me because she isn’t married and hasn’t any children, but just busy like normal people get busy.
A few days later I still hadn’t heard from her which I thought was really strange, but I was so wrapped up in my own chaotic life that I didn’t panic – yet.
A week later I still hadn’t heard from her so I started to worry a bit. I went on facebook and was shocked to see that the last time she had posted anything was over a week ago!
Now I realize in most cases this would not be cause for concern, however, given the nature of business my friend is involved in, her business is dependent on things such as social networking and in any given typical day she would be on facebook almost every hour, posting something, giving updates, or liking others comments etc… This just wasn’t right.
I jumped over to twitter. Same thing. Nothing since the same day she last posted on FB. Now I was worried. this was completely out of character.
I didn’t know what to do. I was mainly friends with this person through facebook and activties involving a few of my children. I had met her several times, and had visited her office but it wasn’t like I met her every week for lunch.
I left several voice messages on her cell phone, and sent more messages through facebook and email.
As each day passed I became more and more concerned. My days were focused on her and full of worry that something terrible had happened.
I thought about calling the police but then felt silly. I tried to convince myself that she was fine and just decided to take a few weeks vacation somewhere. In my heart though I knew that was crazy and she would have told me.
Finally I couldn’t deal with the worry and so I called in a missing persons report. I felt crazy but also felt better, because I never would have forgiven myself if I didn’t do something and something terrible had or did happen.
Turns out something bad had happened but I can’t really get into the details because I want to assure her privacy is respected, however, rest assured she is safe and doing much better.
When a child or teenager go missing we don’t hesitate – we report it, however, it seems different when it comes to adults. What would you have done? Would you have reported it or just waited?
Until next time,
Chantel,momof8crazymonkeys.
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