After spending the previous couple of days out and about visiting different attractions we decided to spend a day relaxing on the beach and soaking up some sunshine. Having been to Hunstanton quite a few times we knew to head down to Old Hunstanton as the beaches there are bigger, generally more sandy and not quite as crowded as on the main sea front.
When we arrived we found a spot which took our fancy, set up our picnic blankets and settled down for some fun on the beach. Hubby isn’t like me, he can’t just sit down and relax in the sunshine or read a book, so he said that he would keep the children entertained whilst I stayed on the blankets and looked after the bags etc (or in my interpretation; relaxing). I had been sitting there for about 45 minutes when I heard a child crying, I knew it wasn’t one of mine but nevertheless it raised my concerns so I sat up to see where it was coming from. About 50 yards from me a young girl was limping up the beach and when I looked at her foot I could see a lot of blood on it. I asked her if she was ok and she said “I’ve hurt my foot and I can’t find my Grandma”. I stood up to talk to her and asked her where they had been sitting and what her Grandma was wearing. She said she couldn’t remember where they were sitting and her Grandma had an orange swimsuit on. The woman on the next blanket to me had overheard the conversation and came over to ask if she could help too. Between us we fired 20 questions at the young girl, who we found to be named Holly, in an attempt to help her find her Grandma. Holly was 9 years old and had come to the beach for the day with her Grandma, Grandad and older brother Jordan but she couldn’t remember where they were on the beach, she couldn’t remember where they had parked, she didn’t know any phone numbers that we could call and she said that she had been playing in the water and lost track of where she was.
I waved for Hubby to come back and have a walk up and down the beach to see if he could see someone matching Holly’s description whilst I tended to Holly’s foot. When I cleaned away all the sand from her foot she had a deep cut about 2 inches long on her heal. She thought she had perhaps stood on a razor clam but she wasn’t sure. Curly sat with me and Holly whilst Little Bean and Beanie Boy continued to make a sandcastle beside the picnic blanket. Hubby walked for some distance in both directions but couldn’t find anyone matching her Grandma’s description and so I asked Holly if she felt up to walking with me to see if we could see her. She struggled because the sand was really stinging her foot but we walked for about 20 minutes in one direction and she said she still didn’t recognise any of it, although she admitted she was in fact very short-sighted and couldn’t see very far anyway. I then suggested that perhaps we should try to find her Grandad and brother instead whom she had said were playing in the sea so Holly, Curly and I began walking the very long walk out to see (the tide was right out). After 15 minutes or so we made it about 100yards from the waters edge when I spotted a woman in a red swimsuit almost matching Holly’s description of her Grandma walking along looking frantic, I pointed to her and asked Holly “does that look like your Grandma” and she very casually said “yes that’s her” so I called to her Grandma who came walking towards us and then collapsed into a mass of tears when she got to us. Naturally she was very cross with Holly but I explained to her that Holly too had been very upset and had become disorientated when she had cut her foot. Her Grandma thanked me for taking care of Holly and then walked her back to where they were seated which was actually about half a mile from where Holly had found me.
In total Holly had been with me for nearly 90 minutes so I can’t imagine how her Grandma must have been feeling and I can totally understand why she broke down when she was reunited with her. Visiting the beach is actually one of my least favourite things to do because children wander off so easily, it’s so simple to lose your bearings when you start playing and walking.
So back to my post title, Name It Labels could have saved the day if Holly had been wearing one of their I.D. wristbands. It doesn’t have the child’s name on it for safety. You don’t want a stranger to read the name and then make out to the child that they are a friend of Mummy and Daddy’s in an attempt to befriend them. The I.D. wristbands come in pink or blue and come with self-adhesive labels printed with the message “If I am lost please call . . .” with your emergency telephone number. The wristbands are single use but as you can see from the fright with Holly, they could have been worth their weight in gold because if I hadn’t found Holly’s Grandma I guess I would have had to call the Police. Nobody intends to lose their children, and children don’t wander off on purpose but it does happen so why not do something about it before it happens.
Name It Labels I.D. wristbands are available from as little as £5.00 for a pack of 10 wristbands and labels. Now that’s got to be worth it for your peace of mind and the safety of your child.
What a great idea! I’ve come across two episodes of lost children just this week. The first in a local cinema, where the child just wouldn’t speak at all, not even to tell the employees of the cinema his name.
The other was at a local event where it was very busy and the lady looking after a 3 year old girl took her eye off the little girl for a split second. Luckily the little girl went to a lady on one of the stalls organised at the event, who happened to be my Aunty. Needless to say the lady looking after the little girl went through 5 minutes of feeling sick to her stomach x