The Lost Doll

"Quick! Grab her hand."

"What do you think I am trying to do?"

In the seconds preceding this, the man lost his balance and was unable to save his daughter from a tragic death.

Lying on the dusty earth, a wide-eyed muñeca stares back at the abandoned mother and father with a sad look upon her now dirt-covered face. As Sam, the father, tried to make sense of the situation, Mae, the mother, spirals into a fit of tearful convulsions after the initial shock wore off. The wounded mom gazes over the cliff in hopes of seeing her beautiful niña alive and well. Though there is nothing to be seen but the muñeca to her right and a 250 foot drop beneath her palm.

Days passed. Then, it became weeks. It has been three months since the exquisite child with long, red, curly locks that flowed down her back passed away. The Cane family had been camping when Sam and Mae started to argue. During this time, their beloved wandered off somewhere with her muñeca cradled in her arms. Almost an hour had gone by before Mae realized their little girl was gone, and so was her walking cane and her muñeca.

When she was born, her eyes were not fully formed and she was deemed blind. Although, that did not hinder her spirit. She would play with other kids and absolutely loved to be read to. The one thing that was always with her, though, was a muñeca, a doll that her birth mother had given her after she was born.

Her mother, unfortunately, did not make it more than a year after she was born. A drunk driver hit and killed her when she was driving home from a 32 hour shift at the local hospital. She had been working overtime in order to provide for her and her daughter.

The little girl was having such rough life and the loss of her mother made it even worse. By the grace of God, the Cane family adopted her about two years after being put into the foster system. Every minute spent with her was a dream, but that dream was cut short. Too short.

Now that beautiful child is being cradled in the loving arms of her birth mother behind the pearly gates, while Sam and Mae are left to pick up the pieces.