‘She had found my child alone with the elephants’

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Every month a mother tells about the moment in motherhood when things went horribly wrong.

Fonske (37), single mother of Rein (4) and Siem (2).

“Together with a group of friends, all mothers with children around the age of two to four, we took a trip to the zoo during the May holiday.

I had just been divorced and could use a little break. With Siem in the buggy and Rein enthusiastically jumping around me, we walked to the elephant enclosure. We had been watching the elephants for quite some time when we decided to move to the playground. I called Rein to come along but didn’t check if he did, because he usually listens well.

unknown number

Due to the emotional, stressful breakup, I was not completely myself and therefore not attentive enough. I hadn’t missed Rein when my cell phone rang. A number unknown to me.

It took me a while to understand what the sweet Belgian woman who called meant when she asked if I had lost a child. She told me that she found my son alone with the elephants. She had asked him about his mother and he didn’t know where I was. She did, however, discover the phone number I had written on his hand that morning.

“It took me a while to understand what the sweet Belgian woman who called meant”

I could have fallen through the ground. I asked a friend to keep an eye out for Siem and ran back to the Asian mammals as quickly as possible. Rein stood there, relaxed, full of the jumbos. I thanked the kind woman for her help and returned to our group with my child and my cheeks blushing.

Also read – ‘I lost my children in a crowd and this is what I learned’ >

Fear retroactively

Rein was not bothered by the incident at all. I do. I felt terribly guilty and retroactively developed fear of what could have happened. Since then I have an eye for two and keep a close eye on my offspring. Although, recently I was standing next to me on the market and looking at things on a stall. I looked up: he was gone. In a time frame of no more than thirty seconds! Then I panicked. First in the zoo and now again? He appeared to have crawled under the tarp of the market stall.”

This article appears in Kek Mama 09-2022.

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