Easter Miracles and Reflections

As I stood and sat in church on Easter Sunday, my thoughts drifted to my missing people. After all, Easter is one of those holidays which are celebrated all over the world. First I thought of three recently located girls whom I have started to consider my Easter miracles:

The previous week I had checked my email and found one from the From Whispers to Roars forum (where I am a member) entitled "The GREATEST News!!". I thought it could be about someone being found alive, and I opened it even though I doubted it would be one of mine. Little did I know:

Hi Everyone,
I am shouting it from the roof tops. Our member kenosp
(Joaquin Burgos) is Claudia Perez's Grandfather. He posted a wondeful message
tonight on the forum. Here's what it said:

"God Bless all of you
for your help, last night Claudia Perez walked right in my door and that was the
mirical I had asked GOD for and got, she's ok and safe thanks each and all of
you for all your great help"


YIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I am
so thrilled at this news and had to share it with you all.

Claudia
has Officially been moved to Found/Resolved.

And I am sending this
to Grandpa so I will say from us all

WELCOME HOME
CLAUDIA!!!!!!!!!!

Claudia Perez*'s safe return appeared in many places. Several days after Easter I would find an article about it, which I may post in the future. But anyway, on that Easter Sunday I could easily imagine Claudia and her grandfather sitting in church together--maybe at the same time I thought this, since Florida and my home state of Pennsylvania are in the same time zone--while people gave thanks for her homecoming.

My second miracle is not so famous. One day I was looking over old entries and noticed that Liliana Ivette Brito's picture no longer showed up. I could no longer find her on the NCMEC website, so I started wondering if she had been found. Finally, the day after I found out about Claudia, I read this simple sentence on the National Voice for Children: "Liliana Brito missing from Carpentersville, IL, has been recovered." I have no idea how close it really was to Easter, but she is still worth mentioning.

My third Easter miracle never appeared on this blog except the index. Nevertheless, I have decided to share a note I found on From Whispers to Roars (http://fromwhisperstor.6.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=6501) about Harriett Cossell, missing since January from Uniontown, Pennsylvania:

Dear Poster Partner:

Harriett Cossell missing from Uniontown, PA, has been recovered. Please
discontinue dissemination of this poster. Your participation in this program has
made a valuable contribution to this recovery.

Please remove and discard any posters on this case that you have placed in
public view.

Thank you for your support.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Visit our web site at http://www.missingkids.com./

I thought of Shasta Groene and Tanya Kach, whose families were probably happy to be able to celebrate Easter with them. And then there were Purvis Parker and Quadrevion Henning. These two missing boys from Milwaukee weren't "my" missing people, but I had gotten to know them through an April 14 story on The Early Show. I also saw the very next day on The Saturday Early Show that two bodies which appeared to belong to children were found in a nearby lagoon. The autopsies were scheduled for that night. Just before Easter! I didn't know that Sunday morning wheter they really were Purvis and Quadrevion**, and their families might not have known yet either, but their holiday was probably marked by pain.

Finally, there are the families whose loved ones are still missing. In particular I thought of the Holloway/Twitty family, probably since I had bought Natalee's father's book the day before, and of Georgina DeJesus, for some unknown reason. Maybe it was because she disappeared in another April, two years earlier. I did not want these and the other families to have to go through another Easter of not knowing. I know it seems a stretch that every single missing person on my index could be found within a year, but surely at least half could be. So please, won't you take another look? And whatever you do, please pray for them. Pray for all of them, that as many as possible can be found while they are still alive. But if it is too late for that, if they are dead, maybe even that would be better than the not knowing.

*In this entry I am refering to Claudia X. Perez, who had been missing from Wildwood, Florida. She is not to be confused with Claudia Veronica Perez of Houston, Texas, who is still missing.

** It was later confirmed that those bodies did belong to Purvis and Quadrevion.