My Son's Disappearance Terrified Me to the Core, but Also Taught Me a Lesson

When Kim and Jaden's son, Leo, is born, Jaden's estranged mother wants to make up for lost time. Unable to look past Mary's track record of leaving her son as a baby, Kim and Jaden keep her at a distance. But when their boy begins to notice their behavior, he takes matters into his own hands.

I once read that becoming a parent means your child becomes your greatest teacher in life.

Sure, it made sense. Children are always teaching parents more about themselves. But nothing could have prepared me for the lesson my eight-year-old son, Leo, taught me.

My husband, Jaden, and I have been together for well over ten years, and we share a wonderful and curious little boy who changed our world. My parents don't live close to us, so we rarely see them — and the only other grandparent that is around is Jaden's mother, Mary.

Mary has a rocky past with my husband due to her leaving when he was just a toddler, and she only re-entered our lives just before we got married.

"She left because she wanted to hang onto her youth," Jaden said to me after Mary first contacted me. "What mother does that?"

As Jaden and I were dating at the time, I didn't want to be too forceful and encouraged him to hear her out.

"It wouldn't hurt to get to know her, that's all," I said over dinner one evening.

Despite Jaden accepting her back into his life, he always kept her at arm's length — especially when it came to Leo.

When I was pregnant with Leo, Mary tried to be present all the time. It seemed that she wanted to make up for lost time. But there was just something about abandoning Jaden as a child, that I couldn't look past.

So, we allowed her to come and go when Leo was born. But there was no way that Jaden and I were going to give Mary more responsibility with our son. For years, Mary continued to come over every few days, showering Leo with grandmotherly love.

She baked his birthday cake every year, even when Jaden asked her not to worry about it.

"He's my grandson," she would say. "I love him."

Jaden would always look away when she said that.

Now, Leo is eight and has a mind of his own. He loves Mary like a child would love their grandmother, not understanding why Jaden and I remained detached from her.

Here's where the story gets terrifying.

A few months ago, Leo disappeared. Jaden and I were in absolute agony, not knowing where he was or if he was safe.

The twist?

Leo had been with my mother-in-law the entire time. When we found out, thanks to the police officers who were at our beck and call until Leo was safely home, I was ready to unleash a world of anger on Mary.

Until we found out the truth.

"Listen, Kim," the police officer told me as Jaden gave Leo a snack.

We had picked Leo up from Mary's house with a police escort, just in case she didn't want us to take him away. The officers brought us back home, revealing how they actually located Leo.

"Leo went to his grandmother's house by himself."

"What?" Jaden asked from across the kitchen.

Our son had gone to Mary on his own, believing that we had mistreated her by keeping her away from Leo at every chance we got. The officer showed us footage from a street camera, confirming Leo getting off a bus and walking straight up to Mary's house.

He told us that he did it because he saw the good in her.

"Grandma has always been the best to me," Leo said with authority in his voice. "She's always paid attention to me. You and Dad don't want her around. But I do. And she's sick."

"Sick?" I asked, curious.

"Grandma said that she's so ill that she may die," Leo sighed. "I don't want her to die."

My son's lower lip quivered, and his tears began to fall.

After that, Jaden and I looked at the situation from a whole new perspective. Here was a woman who wanted to make up for lost time. She wanted to reconnect with her family and love the only grandchild she had.

But Jaden and I had refused to look past her transgressions in life. We wanted to punish her for what she did to Jaden — leaving him alone with her sister to raise him.

But it had to stop. Leo, in his innocence and wisdom, taught us that people can change. It's true, Mary is sick. But she has time to make things right and ensure that our son gets as much joy and memories as he can from the time she has left.

Our family is reunited with a grandmother who dotes over her grandson.

Do you have any similar stories?

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