News of a Little Child

The last time I quoted anything from the newspaper was ages ago.  I usually keep any opinion reserved and away from my blog, unless there's something so touchy about it that I can't help but share.

Below is a poster from The Star of the abduction of a cute little boy named William Yau Zhen Zhong, aged 6.

As people might have known...
William's 1 year-old sister was crying when the 3 siblings were left in the car by their parents who had gone into an electrical shop near where the car was parked.  William's eldest brother who's only 7 years old had accompanied their sister in the car, while William had gone out of the car to look for their parents.  William was never seen after that.

Almost did...
I'm generally not the type who easily weep upon receiving sad news, including the one that had shocked me the most for the first time in my life more than a year ago. But I was surprised that I almost wanted to cry when I heard something this morning.  Where have all my "coolness" gone to?

Back to the topic today, I was late due to some unforeseen circumstances, and was carpooling with my husband who took me halfway to work in the morning when he tuned in to MY FM (one of the Chinese language radio stations).  The brief news report came in, and it was announced that the body of a boy was found, believed to be William.

Although I do not personally known his family, the news was heart-sinking indeed.  He's young and innocent... and could have had a bright future ahead of him, but for that fateful event.  He had gone a long way from being a baby of his parents, to being a lovely 6 year-old boy. 

Conclusion
I do not wish to comment further, firstly because I did not witness it, and secondly because there's no use commenting on something which has already occurred and cannot be undone. 

Nevertheless, I would really like to stress to all parents and caretakers to be extra vigilant with children - never leave them unsupervised, like keeping them in the car without the company of an adult.  Unfortunately, gone are the days when children are free to play and be out safely all by themselves like in the past.  Instead of improving, the security scenario in our country is sadly on a decline.

My heart goes towards the family of William, but my feeling is the deepest for William's 7 year-old eldest brother.  I can't imagine the trauma that the young child experiences - this is a very dreadful nightmare for even adults, let alone a 7 year-old.

At the time of writing out this note, the parents of William had already given their DNA samples for testing, and post-mortem on the body had just been completed moments ago.