What if one of your family members simply vanished? Their cell phone is turned off and nowhere to be found. Their car isn’t in their driveway. You have no idea what ultimately led to their disappearance–all you have are a series of baffling clues they left behind and the feeling that something potentially awful has happened.
It’s a disturbing scenario, one that families of missing persons must face. I’ve gotten obsessed with the TV show “Disappeared” on Discovery ID, which profiles such people and the tragedy that comes with attempting to concoct reasons for a loved one’s vanishing, however tragic the reality might be. (Most episodes rarely end on a happy note.) One recent case focused on Amber Gerweck, a 33-year-old mother of four who was reported missing earlier this year. Her car was later discovered in Georgia, nearly 600 miles from her Michigan apartment. She was seen on a store surveillance camera in Georgia nonchalantly purchasing items, exited the store, and was never seen from again–until she was discovered a month later at an Illinois police station, without any memory of how she got there or her identity.
Amber had suffered from a rare form of amnesia, one that erased her memory of most of her life’s major events past the age of 12. Her parents and children weren’t any familiar to her than strangers off the street.
What struck me as inspiring was Amber’s final words toward the end of the show. She’s slowly rebuilt her life in the months following her return to normalcy, but in a sense she’s a changed person. Her ordeal also showcases the strength of familial bonds.
“The one thing in the world that mattered the most to me is that people don’t lose hope,” Gerweck said during the episode. “It means the world to me to remember everyday how many people refused to give up that I would be found. You can’t give up–you have to keep hoping.”
The Eternal Optimist
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For their tour, U2 will need 120 trucks just to move the stage. I assume at least another 5 trucks for wraparound sunglasses.