52nd Anniversary Writing & Photography Contest – Honorable Mention
Lost and found
A mother’s fears resist reassurance
by Joel Gitelson
It was a crowded weekend day during the summer of 1995, when I noticed a commotion just north of the Torrance lifeguard tower, where I was working. A woman was running towards us in total panic mode, tears streaming down her cheeks, arms raised in the air. She could barely describe her missing three-year-old daughter.
I called the information into Hermosa Beach headquarters on the Hermosa pier: name, age, weight, height, color and length of hair, bathing suit. The mom had already recruited dozens of beach patrons to help her find her daughter before coming to us.
Needing our help made her realize the situation had progressed to more than just looking around the immediate area. That freaked her out even more. I took her in the truck, and between sobs she told me she didn’t think her daughter would go in the ocean. I told her we would never have let that happen. We had a diligent crew who wouldn’t miss a three-year-old going into the ocean. Of course it could happen. But I was pretty sure this little one was not in the water.
As she speculated about abduction, I reassured her that children were not taken from the beach easily, and I knew of no case in the Torrance area of that happening. We drove south for a couple of towers. Lifeguards were notified that we were on a search and shook their heads as we approached, seeing the mom in the front seat.
As we headed north towards Redondo Beach I got a call on the radio from Lifeguard Headquarters in Hermosa that the guard several towers north had a little lost girl in her tower. As we approached the Avenue H tower the mom held her hands to her face and sobbed. The reunion was sweet. The little one was probably chasing seagulls and ended up half a mile up the beach.
As we approached the area where the family was staying, beachgoers saw the mom in the front seat with her daughter in her lap. One by one they stood up to applaud, then whistle and cheer. ER