This was an email that Candace sent me this morning. I still can't believe this happened, we were both literally speechless.
Bare in mind, he is ok. You should know that prior to reading this, it gets a little intense...
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So, yesterday at work I received the most horrifying phone call of my life.
It went something like this:
"Alden is missing."
My stomach sank, my heart froze.. I didn't know what to do.
Alden's day care picks him up every afternoon right as school lets out. He literally steps off the sidewalk and in to their van; doesn't cross a parking lot, doesn't have to walk anywhere... comes right out of the school doors and gets in.
But yesterday when they arrived, he didn't come out.
Eventually they sent someone looking for him, only to have the teacher say "he left and went to wait at the doors already"... so they did an all-page through the school. They checked the bathrooms, the library, the playground, no Alden.
When I got the phone call the daycare driver had all the other kids holding hands and scouring the neighborhood next to the school, yelling his name. The teachers were doing another search of the building.
I was asked if anyone else could have picked him up, if he has friends that live nearby, if he knows anyone in the neighborhood and could have gone to their house.
"No, no, NO! He was there, he should still be there!"
She said a teacher was coming and she needed to call me right back.
I didn't hang up-- scared to death and frozen-- but the line disconnected anyway.
I sent Austin a text that Alden was missing, so he started to panic also and called wondering what to do.
Then my other line rang.. it was the driver again. She was crying.
"I have him, I have him," she kept saying, "he's here. We found him." This was forty minutes after school let out.
So, apparently, Alden thought he "missed the bus". He gathered up his things and went walking down 27th south. He stopped at a cross walk and waited to cross, but no cars were stopping. He continued down the street.
An older lady was watching him out of her window, and knew he was too little to be by himself. She went out and grabbed him, asking him where he needed to be. He tried to explain that he missed the bus, "the one with the green writing", but couldn't say the name of his daycare. She walked him back to the elementary school where they found a teacher who had been looking for him, and eventually found the driver.
Alden told them all he thought he could get back to the daycare if he walked.
I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around the event.. picturing little Alden making his way down the street all by himself.. and thank god for that lady who took him back! Anything could have happened.
So, Alden and I had a long talk about what to do if he thought he got left behind at school again. I told him no one would ever, EVER forget about him; that someone will ALWAYS come and pick him up, and that he needs to go to the office and wait if he doesn't see the van.
AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH.
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