Lost and Found Father

Sometimes having an elderly parent is like having a child especially when a parent wanders off at the mall. After Mass, Dad and I and about 50,000 other people headed to the shrine of consumerism for lunch and a little shopping.

A certain parent of a certain blogger walked away. I spent at least a half-hour of walking around looking for him, riding up and down escalators, walking around this incredibly crowded place. My feet hurt, and I was very hot in my winter clothing.

I had to sit down to assess the situation and think it through. I thought of every lost and abducted child I heard about in the news. I never heard of anyone kidnapping an old person. How do I report a missing, legally blind old guy? What would the store do? Would they use the same procedures as they would for a missing child? Would they just laugh at me? When I found my father, would it be wrong to put a leash on him?

A large problem is that he has very, very, very limited vision, and sometimes gets disorientated because of his low vision.

There was only one thing for this Catholic woman to do: I prayed to St. Anthony. Then I got up, took about 10 steps, and there was my dad crossing my path! He too had been hiking around and riding escalators up and down. He said he even went outside to look for my car! Of course he couldn't find it because he walked out of the wrong door. Luckily he went back inside the store.

Thank you St. Anthony for finding my dad for me.

I did lose my hat though.