‘She fell into my arms, tears falling. ‘My boy was non-verbal. He let himself out the front door.’ She tightly clutched his blanket, and described a boy just like my own.’: Special needs mom talks anxiety, missing children statistics

“My husband’s voice cracked. ‘They found him. He’s gone.’ As we sat there in the warm night lit by citronella torches, his mother, who I’d never met, hugged me and fell into my arms. ‘It happened fast. Minutes…maybe seconds. No noise…just silently slipped away.’ I held my breath. As an autism parent, I knew the statistics.”

‘My sweet little innocent girl looked right at me and said, ‘But mom, you are Santa.’ I could have lied. Instead, I confessed the truth.’: Mom teaches daughter ‘true magic of Christmas’

“I wanted to tell her that even though the writing on her presents looks like mine, it isn’t. I wanted to tell her that when her elf caught fire last year when he was sitting on a hot light bulb, that she didn’t smell melting plastic. She is still so little, and I wanted to savor that magic.”

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