A Tale of a Crazy Crisis Created by Utter Incompetence at Course Correcting
At 9:37pm we were playing Scrabble with our 16 year old, when my new phone rang from a number I didn't recognize. I answered, and it was my 18 year old, calling from a Dominos Pizza closer to home than where she works, but not really close to home. She was lost and asked that we bring her phone so she could navigate home. She's had this job since October of 2019, and had driven her route home many, many times, but it still wasn't entirely surprising to us that she got lost. She is my kid, and has my complete lack of sense of direction.
My husband looked up the address of the Domino's Pizza where she was and discovered that if she turned out of the parking lot there would be an onramp right there to a freeway that would take her back to familiar territory. He gave her directions and we went back to playing Scrabble, even though our child was clearly frustrated with that response, and hung up after saying, "Okay, I'll call you from the next place where I get lost."
An hour later we started to worry. She had called from a location that should have taken 30-45 minutes to get home from. At 11:30 we started wondering when to call the police. About midnight we finally called and initiated a missing person report. A deputy called back after 1:00am to take the report. In the middle of giving him the details of the situation, he said, "In all my years on the force, I've never taken a call like this." Even then, there was an element of silliness in the whole thing. My child literally got lost on her way home from a job she's had for over a year.
At some point I went to shower just to calm down. Sobbing wasn't solving anything so I stood under hot water to regain some control over my emotions and try to push my worst case scenario thoughts out of my head. My husband kept apologizing and saying, "I should have gone to get her when she called."
It was after 3:00am when the deputy called again. He had put out the missing person report to neighboring counties, and received a call back with a report that her license plate was seen at 11:30pm traveling southbound on a highway I had never heard of in the town where our airport is located. Clearly she had gone the wrong direction from Domino's Pizza, and just kept going the wrong way. When I pointed out to the deputy that 11:30 was several hours ago, he expanded the search area to two more counties to the south.
Although there was no way of knowing what had happened in the nearly four hours since her car was spotted, we were reasonably assured that our child was just ridiculously lost, and not injured in a ditch or hospital somewhere. Although we were still worried, we began to relax a little for the first time all night.
After sitting at the kitchen table most of the night, my husband and I decided that when daylight dawned and businesses began to open for Christmas Eve, we would hear from our child again. Of course we would go get her this time, so we should probably get some rest before driving to wherever she ended up. Hoping that would be somewhere within our state when she called again, we finally went to bed just after 4:00am.
My phone rang at 5:30am. My child finally found an open gas station that allowed her to use a phone. She was 45 miles away from home, near the coast, across a toll bridge. But she was safe, in good spirits, and not even too hungry since she had brought bread from the restaurant where she works and had been nibbling on it all night.
A quick call to the deputy to report she had been found, and some laughter later, we were on our way to pick up our child. Over an hour later we pulled into the gas station and spotted her car. I hugged her longer and harder than I have in years, and she let me.
It was dark, very dark due to the fog that didn't allow street lights to penetrate down to the roads, and icy. My child literally drove all night, stopping here and there when she found shops that might be open, in search of a phone. She didn't get in a wreck and wasn't even mad or frustrated by the situation. She said, "I know Dad wants me to learn directions, and I know I need to."
Given that all we lost that night was sleep, I can't stop thinking about how very blessed I am. Christmas is not about the presents or even the traditions many of us are missing in this crazy COVID year. It's about peace, joy, hope, and love. The Conrows are feeling that very deeply right now. We are so lucky. Our family is whole. Merry Christmas everyone! Hold the ones you love close!
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