Normally I look at the Daily Mail website every morning to see if my latest article has made it in. Now all I am interested in is news about Maddy, the little girl that was abducted Thursday from a resort in the Algarve.
I can’t think of a news story that has upset me more. I think about her all the time and I can’t really work out why. After all she has nothing to do with me. But every time I see her smiling, sweet face I have to stop myself weeping. I suppose in part it is a ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ feeling. When we were in a similar “child-friendly” resort in Zermatt we had dinner downstairs in the hotel and didn’t even check the children more than a couple of times. Admittedly we didn’t need to as they kept wandering downstairs to see what we were eating.
I think what has really got to me is the destruction of innocence, happiness and a family. There is nothing as innocent and lovely as a three-year-old. And there is nothing as evil as a person prepared to destroy that. I can’t quite get my head around the fact that there are such people out there. I had hoped she had been abducted by a mother desperate for a child. Then at least she would be looked after. Now it seems she was seen being dragged to a local port by a man. This doesn’t bode well.
If I feel like this, what on earth must her poor parents be going through? As a mother I suppose the first question you ask is; is she alive? Then comes the rest. Is she eating? Is she sleeping? What is happening to her? What does she think is happening to her? Does she think we just let her go? That we don’t love her? Will I ever hold her again? Will I ever smell her hair and feel her chubby little arms around me? Will I ever hear her voice?
I can’t even imagine the agony. India Knight said in her column yesterday things like this make you question your views on capital punishment. There can be no punishment grave enough for the person who has done this. Death is too good for him.
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007
I’m praying with all my heart for her safe return.
My heart goes out to her parents and family. I hadn’t heard about this (in the United States) until reading your blog and have googled to find out more information. Maddy and her entire family are in my prayers. What a heartbreaking story. Let’s all pray for a happy ending with her safe return.
I am sure I can only glimpse the suffering of her parents.
If that is difficult, I know I would never, ever, understand the mindset of the abductor. But then, as far as I am concerned, he deserves no understanding and should be put out of his misery.
I say a prayer frequently for a happy ending and that Madeleine’s current situation is not too frightening for her.
If there is a God – would he please listen – just this once?
I too lay awake last night praying inside that Madeline is safely returned to her parents unharmed. As a mum I guess we all know what it is like when we lose sight of our kids in a crowd…when a few seconds feel like a stretch of eternity as you scan the top of heads for sight of the people you love most in the world. I can’t even imagine Madeline’s pain right now. I just hope to God she is returned safe and sound…
The story of Maddy’s disappearance is terrible and one cannot begin to imagine the hell her parents must be going through. I once lost my then 6 year old daughter in a very crowded street on the Ile de Noirmoutier. Although she was found within 10 minutes and even though it was two summers agos, the thought of it even now almost brings me to tears.
Like most other mothers I am not perfect. But some of the stories we here in the press about things happening to children make me wonder whether, as a generation, we create some of our own problems. “Create” is perhaps the wrong word – the evil person who took Maddy is obviously the villain of the piece. But it seems to me that some of our actions as mothers/parents sometimes increase the risk of terrible things happening to our children (leaving Maddy and her yonger siblings without a babysitter in order to go to a nearby restaurant; the parents who left their daughter in a house with a dangerous dog in order to go out on New Year’s Eve). Pressure to have the “perfect life” (the great job, the smart car, the nice clothes & figure, the luxurious holidays, the wonderful relationship) comes from all angles. And that includes from mothers ourselves. But I wonder sometimes whether we pursue these goals at the expense of our children.
It might not have been much fun for Maddy’s parents to have stayed in for the evening in their holiday appartment with a takeaway pizza rather than eating out in a restaurant but given the choice now I bet I can guess which Maddy’s mum would have gone for…
Maybe we should try to encourage one another not to succumb to the pressures of modern life and instead realise that there’s nothing to be ashamed of by putting yourself second, after your children.
(PS In case you’re wondering I like to think that I’m not some old self rightous frump. I like to have a “life” and like many others I am guilty of putting my children second sometimes but it’s not something that any of us are in a hurry to admit)
Still wittering on (and I’m not even drunk!)…
It’s a pity that as parents too many of us shy away from making the decisions which would be best for our children rather than best for ourselves. The idea that being a parent involves personal responsibility, taking the tough option, putting yourself second, etc is regarded as old fashioned. Deep down a lot of us know what is best for their children but far fewer are prepared to admit it. Easier to assauge the guilt with a glass of wine or a new handbag…But the kids aren’t little for very long and how will we feel when they’ve grown up?
I have left a comment on Wife in the north and now I’d like to leave the same one on yours. The police in the Algarve are scaling down the operation but that doesn’t mean we have to. I have a picture of Maddy at the top of my blog with crimestoppers phone number. If everyone who blogs does the same it will keep her image alive in peoples minds when they read blogs. I too cry every time I look at her face and I think about her constantly and pray for her safe return. My daughter is the same age and everytime I look at her I wish that Kate MCann will look at her happy smiling alive daughter again.
What the McCann’s did is, I’m told, standard practice in Mark Warner resorts. They obviously assessed the risks and took a decision that many others have taken before them. They had no reason to suspect that anyone in the area was targeting children. They were the victim of circumstances and should not be condemned for their actions. They are clearly responible, loving parents who thought they had left their children safe and close by. No-one surely can feel anything but the deepest sympathy for their torment. We all occasionally make a bad call with our children.
I hope and pray for that little girl’s safe return to her family.
Bex – that is a really good idea, I am going to put something up today, suggest all do the same.
Best
Hx
it is sad that she was taken but for gods sake, why are you all forgetting that the parents willingly left her on her own????? if theres nothing more wonderful than a 3year old child you’d think they would have cared a bit better for her.