Has Anyone Seen Anthony??

HAS ANYONE SEEN ANTHONY??

As our children were growing up, Dick and I had a musical group known as The Freedom Singers. In the Spring of 1982 our group decided to get matching outfits. Linda (the other female in the group) and I went shopping one evening to get our dresses. Her young teenage brother Phil came along with us and wandered about the mall on his own while we did our shopping. We found the dresses we wanted, then met Phil at the appointed time. Mission accomplished.

The next mission was to find the guys (Dick, his brother Steve, and our bass player Don) shirts, pants, and ties to match our dresses. A family shopping trip was planned for the next evening. When I told five-year-old Anthony where we were going that evening, he asked, "While you're looking for the men's suits, can I walk around by myself?"

My quick answer was, "NO!!"

"Why not?" he asked incredulously. "You said that when you and Linda went shopping, Phil was walking around by himself."

"Anthony, Phil is a lot older than you are. You are just a little boy. There are some really bad people that kidnap children and do really terrible things to them. Sometimes they even kill the children." I think I even went into more specific details than that. I wanted to be sure he would NEVER want to walk around by himself!

That evening our shopping crew consisted of three families: Steve's family, which included his wife and two young children, our family, which included three young children (Miki was a teen, but did not go along), and bass player Don with his fourteen-year-old daughter Michelle.

We started out at Sears, but were not satisfied with the selection. Next destination - Penneys. That meant a long walk to the center of the mall, then a trip down another mall to Penneys. By then the children were thirsty, so we stopped in the center to get them drinks, then continued on our merry way toward Penneys.

At Penneys, the men were checking out the selections, Steve's wife and I were giving our opinions, and the children were starting to get noisy as they played. Anthony was usually the loudest one, so as I started telling the children to quiet down, I was especially looking for him. Where was he? I asked the other children. They didn't know. I started to panic. I asked the rest of the adults, "Have any of you seen Anthony since we're here at Penneys?" None of them could remember seeing him since we got drinks.

Then I REALLY panicked! I grabbed two-year-old Jeremy and told Michelle and eight-year-old Lisa to come with me. As we practically ran through the Penneys mall toward the center we kept watching everywhere for him. We looked around the area where we had gotten drinks, then ran down the mall toward the security office. All the while Jeremy was getting heavier and heavier, and he kept trying to turn my face toward his as he continually asked, "Anthony lost? Anthony lost?"

We got to the end of that mall, only to discover that this was NOT the one with the security office. I had gotten mixed up. By then I was crying. I was besieged with thoughts of all the things I had told him that afternoon. Had I spoken them into existence? I had never known such incredible fear in my life.

We ran back to the center again. I felt like I was going to drop Jeremy any minute. So I ordered Michelle and Lisa to sit on a fixture in the center and hold Jeremy for me and keep their eyes open for Anthony. Then I literally RACED down the mall where the security office really was. I was just crying and crying silently to God to please protect my precious little boy.

I got to the security office and, PRAISE GOD, there Anthony sat!!! There just are not words in the English language to describe my incredible relief. He started to cry as he said, "I was watching all these TV's (security monitors) looking for you, but I couldn't see you anywhere."

How did it happen? This is what we came up with: After we got our drinks and started the walk toward Penneys, Steve was taking up the rear (or so he thought.) Anthony was actually following Steve, but Steve did not know it. It was the week before Mother's Day, so there were various stands along the way selling things to buy for Mothers. Steve saw something that he considered buying for Faye, so he stopped to check it out. Anthony did not notice that Steve had stopped and kept walking. After a while he looked around and couldn't see any of us, so he walked back toward the center to find us. Of course we were not there. He started to cry and "a nice old man and lady" (according to Anthony) asked him if he was lost. He told them that he couldn't find his family, so they took him to the security office. Bless their dear hearts! And praise the Lord for bringing them to Anthony first.

I have often wondered why it took me so long to notice he was missing. Why did I leave that drink stand without making sure he was with us? I have no answers. I only have extreme gratefulness to God for providing His protection when mine was so sadly lacking.