Saturday, August 23, 2008

Tragedy In Our Small Town

Yesterday the unthinkable happened in our small town. We are a town of about 15oo people. If you've lived here very many years, you know there we are a close knit bunch.

We have about three daycare facilties here, and yesterday a 23 month old girl managed to escape and was found in a pool next door. I have known the owners of this daycare for over 40 years. The lady for whom the daycare is named, and I raised our children together. My oldest daughter and her youngest daughter were inseparable.

The older daughter runs the daycare. The kids all call her auntie. This is because when she first started the daycare, three of the children were her neices and nephew and that's what they called her. Now she is auntie to children of all ages. My now eleven year old grandson stayed there when he was very small.

Needless to say, these people are more like family than just friends. Auntie loves children and has raised two of her own. She is well respected in our community.

In a strange twist, the little girl managed to get away and out of sight for a few minutes. There is a block of time in the afternoons that Auntie goes to pick up after school children, and her daughter and the other helpers are responsible for the children. There are also people coming and going about that time picking up their children. When they realized she was missing, a frantic search began. Police were called. A neighbor found the little girl in the next door neighbor's above ground blow up blue pool.

CPR was started and done until the paramedics came and took over. When they left with her, she had a pulse, and was taken to the nearest hospital. Around 6, she was flown to Children's Hospital in Little Rock. At ten last night, the news reported she was in extreme critical care, but was holding her own.

Our entire community is in constant prayer for this child and her family. We are also praying for Auntie and her family. We are so grief stricken. When we talk to each other trying to find out how everyone is doing, we are unable to talk without getting emotional.

Please pray for all of us. Pray for the little girl and her family. Her name is Addison. Pray for Auntie and her family. We need all the prayers we can get.

I hope you are having a good Saturday. Love one another.

6 comments:

Robbin said...

Sending prayers to everyone, and praying hard that Addison is going to be ok.

Anonymous said...

That's just terrible! It is so sad when something like that happens to a child!
Prayers already sent and more on the way!

Laura ~Peach~ said...

THoughts and prayers!!! What a horrid thing to happen and how wonderful to have the whole community pulling together... not apart!
more prayers
Hugs Laura

Debra said...

My soul! How tragic!

Thoughts & prayers for all concerned.

Lisa said...

Oh my goodness, my heart goes out to everyone. I hope that healing begins now starting with little Addison. What a tough time ahead for everyone.

Marcie said...

What a sad, sad situation. I will add little Addison and her family, as well as your community, to my prayers. Our community, a very small one like yours, faced so much tragedy last year. I know that difficult days are ahead, but I believe that your community, as ours did, will pull together to offer love and strength and sympathy to this family.

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