An Iowa mother is searching for her late son’s favorite toy. It held some of his ashes.
Liz Atkinson of Burlington, Iowa has received hundreds of messages from people all over sending support or assembling search parties to help look for Bruce.
Bruce stands at about 11 inches tall. He's a light blue elephant with red ears and a large red heart in the center. He was a source of comfort to Liz's 7-year-old son Gabryel who died last year.
Bruce seemed to magically appear in the NICU after Gabryel was born and he followed him to over 50 surgeries. They slept together every night until Gabryel's passing.
Since then, Bruce has become a source of comfort for everyone in the family, especially to 6-year-old Sebastyan, Gabryel's little brother.
That was until Bruce vanished during a trip a few weeks back.
Who was Gabryel?
When Liz was 20 weeks along in her pregnancy, she and her husband Ande learned Gabryel would be born with chromosomal anomalies and that he would likely not survive. Gabryel was born 11 weeks later. Liz recalls doctors telling her the medical issues Gabryel was facing were things they had only seen before in textbooks. He had developmental delays and was non-verbal.
Nevertheless, he was always a ball of joy who loved making people happy.
"He used to go up to strangers at the supermarket and give them a hug, and they would say, 'wow I really needed that, thank you,'" Liz said.
Liz said that Gabryel spent a lot of time in and out of surgeries and hospital care, but the family did their best to make life as normal as possible, including taking trips and seeing family, even if that meant packing up all of his equipment and medication.
Bruce went with the family to all those important trips and events.
A vibration component inside of Bruce and religious music seemed to be the only things that calmed Gabryel through his medical hardships.
"Kids get these major surgeries and are given just Tylenol and Ibuprofen," Liz said. "People assume kids are so resilient, but they can be in a lot of pain."
After his passing, the family decided to continue bringing Bruce with them places, so when Sebastyan asked if Bruce was coming on their Florida road trip, Liz and Ande didn't hesitate.
"He's part of the family," she said.
Some of Gabryel's ashes were put in a pocket Bruce had. He was never going to go to the activities they had planned, they just wanted to feel like Gabryel was there with them.
Somewhere during that time, Bruce vanished.
"I feel like I've lost a piece of my son," Liz said.
What happened in Florida
When she realized back in Iowa Bruce was missing, Liz retraced her steps. Having both OCD and a photographic memory, she was able to narrow down only a few places where she couldn't distinctly remember Bruce being present. Security camera footage brought forward shows Bruce getting back into the car after the family went parasailing on April 24.
They then went to Disney Springs before staying at the Palazzo in Kissimmee until the 25th. From there they went to Art of Animation until April 30.
"Because vehicles get messy on trips, I kept thinking maybe he was just mixed in somewhere," Liz said in a Facebook post. "Very unlike me, I know where everything is 100% of the time even on trips, thank you grief. But once we got home May 1 I searched EVERYWHERE. Every bag. He’s gone."
The family called the places they stopped after and no one has seen him. Art of Animation will be checking the room they stayed on Saturday behind the bed where things had been found missing in the past.
"I'm hoping and praying he's there behind the bed," Liz said.
The family's car and luggage have been looked through extensively. Hundreds of people online have poured in their support, even assembling search parties at the locations the family visited.
"I never in a million years would’ve thought that struggling with grief would have impaired my memory enough to forget him somewhere and I tried very hard to make sure he was always in a bag or in my arms so this didn’t happen," she said in a Facebook post.
Liz has tried and failed to convince herself that Gabryel and Bruce are out on an adventure together. She said Sebastyan has been devastated and blames himself, no matter how many times her and Ande have tried to urge otherwise.
"I don't think I'll ever be able to convince my son it's not his fault," she said.
Where to go from here
Liz continues to hope that Bruce will be found and returned. On Wednesday, her husband got in a crash that totaled his car. He barely escaped with his life. As an ER nurse, Liz knew the amount of pain he was in and wished Bruce could've been there.
"I wanted to reach for Bruce and bring him to the hospital, and knowing that I couldn't was really hard," she said.
If anyone sees Bruce, or thinks they have found him, they should message Liz on her Facebook account. Bruce has four AA batteries in his back but they are empty, so he will not vibrate or make a sound when touched.
Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her on Twitter @NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa mother searching for late son's toy, ashes after Florida trip
