Last weekend, Anna and I were flying home from visiting my mom. It was late in the evening, we'd had two flights already, and we still had a two-hour car ride home to look forward to. It was a long day for sure. We waited at the baggage carousel. Anna insisted on getting her own suitcase and wandered to the other side. Eventually we both got our bags and took all of our stuff over to some chairs to wait for Mama Heidi to pick us up.
And then panic struck. "Mom, my bag is gone!" Anna exclaimed. "What do you mean, gone? It was right here....wasn't it?" I couldn't remember. My mind was fuzzy and I was tired. I figured it had to be around the area somewhere. So we started searching and turned up empty-handed. As we talked, Anna realized she may have left her backpack on the floor. She thinks she put it down when she went to grab her suitcase from the carousel. Sure enough, we had two suitcases but only one backpack.
I struggled to remember what was in it. Thankfully, there was no money. There were no electronics. But unfortunately, what Anna lost was something far more precious to her - some of her snuggly friends. There was Felix the Fox, who had been going to school in Anna's backpack since we got him on vacation last summer. There was Todd the Otter, a special friend from grandma from when we visited real river otters at the living museum. There was Chester Cheetah, Pugsly and Chip (puppies she'd just gotten for Valentine's Day), Prickles the Hedgehog and Shelly the Turtle, from Anna's baby days. The one silver lining is that Anna's all-time favorite best stuffed friend, Beary, was still with us. Whew. I can't imagine what would've happened if he'd been in the bag.
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| Beary, Anna's best buddy |
Anna was inconsolable, repeating, "I want my fox! I want my friends! Some bad guy took them!"
We did everything we could. We talked to the airline baggage office, the information desk people, a security officer and lost and found. Nothing. We were told it was possible that an officer or employee of the airport could have thought it was an abandoned bag and taken it to the lost and found. We were told to keep checking back, and we have.
But none of Anna's friends has come home so far.
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| Stuffed Todd the Otter meets real Todd! |
One lesson I have learned from this is to put name tags on every bag, not just suitcases. It drives me nuts that, as far as I can recall, there was no identifying information in the backpack if someone outside the airport were to find it and want to locate the owner. I could be wrong, but I'm just not sure.
But the bigger lesson in all this is that it's Anna's first experience with what she calls "bad guys." She has always known some people are good and some aren't, but she tends to see the good in people and until this incident, she personally had never had to experience what happens when people aren't good. I have always believed people are more good than bad, and Anna does too. Of course, the bag could have been picked up by a well-meaning stranger. I'm still holding out a little hope, but I figure that I'd have heard by now if it came to lost and found. I've left my contact info and a description of the bag at least 3 times.
Unfortunately, it's more likely that someone stole the bag. I was hoping once that person saw it was just stuffed animals, books and other kid stuff they'd have the decency to ditch it in the airport. I was hoping Anna would not have to learn firsthand about the bad guys of the world, especially at her age. Granted, it could be much worse. But it's still unsettling when your child first feels the vulnerability and sadness that comes when someone wrongs you for no reason. It's hard to watch her go through that and wonder why in the world someone would steal a little girl's backpack.
I have tried to strike a cautious balance between optimism and realism with Anna. I don't want to give up contacting the airport just yet, although the more time passes, the less likely it is that we will recover the bag. At least I have shown her that I'm willing to do everything within my power to try and come up with a happy ending.
One good thing in all of this is that even when you're dealing with the bad side of people, the good still overcomes. Every single person we talked to in the airport was sympathetic and caring. They all understood that even though the bag didn't contain things a thief may find valuable, they were very valuable to my little girl. They all took it seriously, showed us compassion and tried to help out. I'm glad Anna got to see that even when bad things happen, the good guys are there to help.
I'm not sure if her friends will find their way home, but if nothing else, hopefully Anna knows her parents and people in a position to help have her back. And even when sad things happen, the good memories are still there.
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