It was a normal day, I was 17 years old and had just come home from school, intent on getting in a few hours preparing for my A levels. My sister Tania who was four, had gone to school earlier in the morning and because my dad had all day meetings he had arranged for a driver to pick her up after school. This wasn’t anything new as we were familiar with the particular driver who on occasions picked us up. My father had informed the head teacher that that would happen so that Tania would not get worried if she did not see her daddy at the end of the day.
Things did not go exactly as planned as the head teacher had a meeting that afternoon and so informed her assistant that my sister would have a driver pick her up. My sister not seeing anyone went to the assistant to ask if she could call home and the assistant cruelly told her no in addition to telling her that no one was picking her up. Later we were told that she had not realised the child would have taken her so seriously. So my sister decided that she was going to attempt to walk it home. This would have been quite a feat as we lived about 18 miles from her school and she had never been on the road by herself, so with her backpack filled with heavy books, her water igloo and her lunch kit she decided to walk.
She walked about half a mile and then when she saw the traffic lights got confused and started crying, a lady in the traffic, realising that something was wrong, pulled over to ask her where she was going as she appeared much too young to be walking alone on the streets. Tania told her she was trying to get home but didn’t remember her address, the lady asked her for her name but my sister explained that she was not suppose to talk to strangers. I had always been a bit obsessive where my sister was concerned and before she could even talk I was drilling into her, our phone number and address and what she should do if approached by strangers but I didn’t expect that she would have to use that information so soon. The lady eventually convinced her that she would help her to get home but she needed to get into the car so she could drive her to her house and then try to work things out. My sister did and the lady took her to her home.
Meanwhile at home, everyone was panicking, as the driver had just called to say he had gone to pick her up but no one was around, he asked the school secretary but she said she didn’t know where Tania was and recalled the conversation they had had, and wondered if the little girl had taken it seriously. We called my father at work as well as my mother and told them what had happened, they both left immediately to help search. You could hear the worry in their voices as they tried to convince us that everything would be ok, but they didn’t sound as confident as they thought they sounded. So many things were going through our heads, I kept picturing worst case scenarios, imagining my cuddly little sister dead on the road or kidnapped by some childless couple or worst but I couldn’t say what that worse was for fear that actually verbalising it meant it was actually a possibility.
My father and brother left to go down all the roads near her school to search and I was left at home in case anyone called. I couldn’t sit still, I remember praying and asking God to let her be safe and come home, I remembered all the times I thought she was this annoying brat constantly messing up my room and my papers and tearing up my homework and all the times I didn’t play with her because I was busy on the phone with my friends, I was racked with guilt and promised that I would spend more time with her if she only came home. I don’t think I have ever prayed that much in my life. About 15mins later the phone rang, It was a lady saying she had got Tania and asking if we could give her the address so she could drop her off, I was so relieved I think I started to cry on the phone and told her that if she gave me her address, my parents would pick her up from her house. I could hardly dial my parents’ mobile number out of excitement but when I told them, I could hear the sheer relief in their voices, about 45 minutes later I heard the car driving in and saw my little sister beaming, an ice-cream cone in her hand. I must have crushed her ribs that day, we were so thankful to get her home. I have to say that she still was annoying at times but I was thankful that God had answered a teenager’s prayer and had brought her sister home safe and sound, he does answer prayers.
The day my baby sister went missing