Early this morning, I joined one of the search-and-rescue groups to go out and comb the area woods for a missing child. Last evening around 6 PM, an alert went out for fire/rescue squads to meet and search for the missing two-year-old boy. It seems he was with his grandparents who were unpacking their vehicle at the rental cabin when the dog jumped out of the car and the child followed his dog. He wasn't found and another tone-out woke us up at 5AM this morning. After downing a bowl of cereal, Cliff put on his hiking boots and we headed to the command site to see how we could help. Because of his fire/rescue training, Cliff was put in charge of our group of volunteers. People came from Tennesee, Georgia, and some distant NC counties to aid in the search. Last night residents searched their own properties when the community phone-alert system stated that the family dog had been found on Hedden Road only about a mile from our house. Figuring there was a good chance that the child was in that vicinity, searchers on four-wheelers came up Boulder Creek and Clay Durrett and were heard running up and down the mountain roads. This morning as soon as the sky lightened up, we set up a perimeter along Hedden and some of the volunteers headed into the thick woods. Within about an hour into our search we heard someone in our group call out, "We found him!" The cold, tired little boy was huddled under a log only about 80 yards from the road. He was probably so frightened to hear the helicopter hovering over and strange people scuffing the leaves and approaching him. He had walked about 3 1/2 miles through thick blackberry brambles and rough terrain. The ambulance rushed him to a helicopter landing zone where he was transported by air to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. It's a wonderful ending to something that could have been so much worse.
Some days are full of doing tasks and chores that Cliff did for me. The floor wasn't that dirty but he enjoyed saying. "Guess I need to pull out the vacuum. I'm tripping over debris." I thanked him. Whenever I was in the kitchen trying out new recipes, making cookies or the double batch tapioca pudding for him, he was there beside (getting in my way sometimes) washing the utensils, pots/pans, cutting boards, drying them and putting everything back in their proper places only to have me take some things back out and reuse again. "I just washed that" he would state. He learned to ask if I were through with things before he cleaned up after me. I thanked him. He emptied the dishwasher when it was finished in such an orderly manner (getting in my way sometimes because I was also in the kitchen working but he wanted to be there with me). I thanked him. Every morning he made my bed reminding me of the order that the pillows needed to be placed. John&
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reading this just broke my heart. i can't imagine the terror he experienced being lost for so long and that damned dog didn't even stay by his side!!! man's best friend, my ass.
so glad for how this turned out. i can't imagine ben or olivia lost like this. i would die.