Keep the little ones close

Reader1 wrote:
Thoughts and prayers are with this family. Children are so very fast that they can be gone within a minute. When my son was 4, we finished eating outside. I took the dishes into the pop-up, laid them down, went out and he was gone. The neighbor across told me immediately that DS had ridden his big wheel up the hill. I ran after him terrified. I always thought I was overly careful and it still happened.

Isn't that the truth! We have a severely mentally handicapped son who cannot talk but can walk very well. We always watched him like a hawk and usually one of us is within hands reach of him. This particular day we were distracted by the weather--it was threatening rain so we got busy putting stuff away and zipping up the tent screens. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Christian walking alone through the site. In the time it took me to turn around and run to him, he walked off a 15ft cliff! :E The next thing my DH saw was me going over the cliff after him! Thank God there was a creek bed at the bottom that was thick with muddy leaves. We were a mess, but basically unhurt. All it took was a few seconds but it made an impression on us for life.