Missing Children

Amanda Berry was just shy of her 17^th birthday party when she seemed to have vanished into thin air on April 21, 2003.  She had left work for her trip home, a trip which was never completed.  Vigils were held. Prayers were offered up. Tears were undoubtedly mixed with deep sobbing as mother and family and friends tried to come to grips with the fact that Amanda was gone.

Louwana Miller is Amanda’ mother.  Was Amanda’s mother, is maybe a more precise way to put it.  You see, Amanda’s Mom could never reconcile her life to the fact that her baby girl was gone. Was she alive? Did she die in some accident? Was it something that had happened at home that had driven her away? Was she taken away against her will? These and a hundred other questions, and a dozen scenarios must have played out in Mom’s mind.  And then, in 2006, she died.  Three years of questions and sorrow and emotional pain finally just broke her heart. That’s what a neighbor told one news reporter.  John Trefero, the neighbor, in speaking of Mom’s death, said, “She died of a broken heart is what most people would say.”

So, when Amanda Berry was freed from the emotional and physical hell she was forced to live in for a decade in Cleveland; when she could finally finish her trip home which she has started a decade earlier, there was no Mom to greet her. Tomorrow, on Mother’s Day, Amanda will continue to suffer the lingering effects of the crimes committed against her.

Parents, use today and tomorrow to reconcile with your children.  Children, especially adult children, use this weekend as the time to release yourself from the prison of emotional pain by beginning the long road of reconciling with your parents.  If your parents are alive, do your best to contact them. Begin to heal the relationships.  If your parents have died and you still harbor hurts, write a letter offering forgiveness and leave it at the altar in your synagogue or church.  A horrible crime denied Amanda and her Mom the opportunity to share their love. Amanda and her Mom could never say goodbye. Amanda and her Mom had no choice. You do.