QUICK-THINKING R EAL LIFE
Holly Roberts, 35, from Buckinghamshire, turned her back for a second and during that time her daughter dashed off – what happened next would haunt her forever…
Splashing around in the water, I could tell that someone was having fun. For my adventurous, headstrong little girl Isabella, two, really loved her swimming lessons – something that was a part of our normal routine.
Which quickly led us to another thing that me, Isabella, my eldest Louis, four, and hubby Kyle, now 36, would all do often – pop over to my mum’s house in Sydenham, Oxfordshire, of an afternoon.
Roughly a 30-minute drive away from home, my mum Sue and dad Ashley, had a really big garden, perfect for the kids to run around in as well as the stables to say hello to the horses.
Which was something that me, Isabella and Louis did on the 8 May earlier on this year – with Kyle staying at home.
Venturing up to the stables, mucking out the horses and then having a bite to eat at Mum’s house, come 5pm, I decided it was time to head home.
So rallying up the kids, while talking to mum as I strapped Louis into his car seat, it was Isabella’s turn to get in the car.
Only, turning around to usher her inside, she’d vanished. Where has she gone? I thought. Normally being a little cheeky, hiding behind the curtains inside Mum’s house or tucking herself away by the back gate next to the car, I knew she had most likely run off and I’d find her in no time.
And with Mum’s place a relaxed environment, we’d keep the doors open, walking inside and out easily. However, with Mum looking in the house and me walking up to the gate, Isabella wasn’t in her usual hiding places.
Isabella wasn’t hiding from us
‘Where has she gone?’ I asked Mum, starting to get a little worried.
‘Bella! Isabella!’ I shouted, calling her name to see if she would come out – but there was nothing... Silence. With Mum’s garden boxed off with fences, rolling land on the other side and a pond also placed in the middle of the yard, my mind started to wander to the worst thoughts.
What if she’s fallen in the pond? I assumed – the intrusive thought something that I couldn’t shake.
‘She’s not there,’ Dad said, making sure to guard the pond just in case Isabella came running back through the garden.
And at that point, after roughly five minutes had passed, I knew that something bad had happened to Isabella – Icould just feel it in my gut.
She’d never gone missing for that long before – it felt like a lifetime.
Running around, retracing every single step, she was nowhere to be seen – and I was getting myself in such a state.
‘I’ll go and knock on next door’s house so we can get someone else to look before calling the police,’ Mum insisted, rus
