helena frith powell

  • Lifestyle
  • Women
  • Beauty
  • France
  • Contact

Your worst nightmare

7th May 2007 by Helena 10 Comments  

Madeline McCannNormally 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


Filed Under: Children, blog --> Tagged With: nightmare, worst

10 thoughts on Your worst nightmare

  • spymum says:
    7th May 2007 at 2:57 pm

    I’m praying with all my heart for her safe return.

  • okcmermaid says:
    7th May 2007 at 3:53 pm

    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.

  • Debio says:
    8th May 2007 at 7:36 am

    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?

  • aminah says:
    8th May 2007 at 10:21 pm

    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…

  • Serious Mummy says:
    10th May 2007 at 10:29 am

    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)

  • Serious Mummy says:
    10th May 2007 at 10:58 am

    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?

  • bex says:
    11th May 2007 at 8:42 pm

    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.

  • Marianne says:
    12th May 2007 at 8:55 pm

    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.

  • helena says:
    13th May 2007 at 8:08 am

    Bex – that is a really good idea, I am going to put something up today, suggest all do the same.
    Best
    Hx

  • clare fry says:
    22nd May 2007 at 9:29 am

    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.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

© 2023 Helena Frith Powell
Website by Web Inclusion
/* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:3em; -webkit-transition: all 0.8s; -moz-transition: all 0.8s; -ms-transition: all 0.8s; -o-transition: all 0.8s; transition: all 0.8s; margin-top:-100%; padding-top:100px; padding-bottom:50px; margin:0; } .scrolled .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:1.2em; padding-top:30px; padding-bottom:20px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .HFPA-section{ width:100%; background:#eee; } .HFPA-Image{ background-position:center right; background-repeat:no-repeat; height:276px; width:100%; -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); /* Safari 6.0 - 9.0 */ filter: grayscale(100%); } .HFPA-Text{ padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .footIt{ background:#222; padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */