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Homeless 6 Year Old Little Girl Disappears
Downtown Miami boast hundreds of millions dollar condos, affluent people from all of the globe and a blind eye to the truly needy.
I just dropped off my girlfriends’ son at his private school in the Brickell area, who is essentially my son at this point. He was born without a father being an in vitro fertilization (IVF-ET) baby.
The bridges over the Miami River went up then down 3 times for shipping coming through so I was delayed getting back home by just over an hour. Only going 2 miles the delay began to upset me.
My girlfriend asked me to stop in at the CVS Pharmacy nearby to pick up a couple of things before I returned. Since it had taken this long a few more minutes didn’t seem to be a big deal.
As a pulled into the always crowded parking lot I noticed a little blonde haired girl sitting on the curb with a man who was about in his mid twenties. She was adorable, the quintessential little blonde American girl who could take your heart away at a glance.
She didn’t appear to be happy though. She was dirty on her face. Her hair was somewhat combed, like she tried to make it appear presentable, but it was matted and also a bit oily and dirty as well.
Her little skirt had spots of dirt on them and so did her shirt. And, her shoes were dirty as well. It all seemed out of place. I couldn’t resist, I had to ask if they were OK. They were not. The man sitting next to this little girl whose name was Jenny told me he was her father. He did the best job he could to look presentable, but clearly was also a bit worn as well.
He told me they were homeless and that the shelters nearby didn’t have room for them for the last 3 days, so they stayed out on the streets at during the day and at night.
This innocent little Jenny looked at her father with adoring eyes, eyes that sadly said; ‘I know my daddy will be OK. I know he’ll make things alright. He’s my daddy, he’s all I have.’
When I heard his story about becoming homeless, losing his job, losing his wife, when I heard her little voice of hope, I broke down into tears. I never saw anything more tragic. I never felt so much pain for someone else.
Immediately I went to an ATM inside the CVS and pulled out $500, walked back to little Jenny and her father and gave them the money. I told them I would be back within 20-30 minutes with a camera to do a story on them that I would be posting on CNN’s iReport. I told them I would do anything needed, anything I was able and anything that was necessary to get them support. And that’s exactly what I did.
I went home, grabbed up my camera and went racing back to the CVS to put them on video to tell their story. The vision of this amazing, trusting and innocent child had been seared into my head. For 30 straight minutes I could not hold back the tears, the sorrow I felt for her, for her father, but especially for her.
When I got back there my heart broke again, they were gone. The security guard that works in that strip mall told me he saw them walk off toward the ocean, closer to downtown. I left him my phone number with him in case he spotted them again. He told me they had been there off and on for 3 days, washing up in the McDonald’s in the morning. Another man that works in the area told me the same thing.
I searched for another hour, but could not locate them. I can’t ever remember being so moved by such a tragic scene in my lifetime. The little girl’s eyes, they had such sadness in them. She seemed so lost. She didn’t seem to understand why all this was happening to her. Wiping the dirt from her cheek, telling her father she was hungry. My God, my heart is broken today. I still cannot hold back the tears.
The picture above isn’t her, but it tells the story of what I saw today.
Tomorrow I will return. I will look for them at the shelters. I will seek them out until I find them. No matter what it takes, I will find them and I WILL find a way to help this little girl who disappeared far too soon from my life.
I just dropped off my girlfriends’ son at his private school in the Brickell area, who is essentially my son at this point. He was born without a father being an in vitro fertilization (IVF-ET) baby.
The bridges over the Miami River went up then down 3 times for shipping coming through so I was delayed getting back home by just over an hour. Only going 2 miles the delay began to upset me.
My girlfriend asked me to stop in at the CVS Pharmacy nearby to pick up a couple of things before I returned. Since it had taken this long a few more minutes didn’t seem to be a big deal.
As a pulled into the always crowded parking lot I noticed a little blonde haired girl sitting on the curb with a man who was about in his mid twenties. She was adorable, the quintessential little blonde American girl who could take your heart away at a glance.
She didn’t appear to be happy though. She was dirty on her face. Her hair was somewhat combed, like she tried to make it appear presentable, but it was matted and also a bit oily and dirty as well.
Her little skirt had spots of dirt on them and so did her shirt. And, her shoes were dirty as well. It all seemed out of place. I couldn’t resist, I had to ask if they were OK. They were not. The man sitting next to this little girl whose name was Jenny told me he was her father. He did the best job he could to look presentable, but clearly was also a bit worn as well.
He told me they were homeless and that the shelters nearby didn’t have room for them for the last 3 days, so they stayed out on the streets at during the day and at night.
This innocent little Jenny looked at her father with adoring eyes, eyes that sadly said; ‘I know my daddy will be OK. I know he’ll make things alright. He’s my daddy, he’s all I have.’
When I heard his story about becoming homeless, losing his job, losing his wife, when I heard her little voice of hope, I broke down into tears. I never saw anything more tragic. I never felt so much pain for someone else.
Immediately I went to an ATM inside the CVS and pulled out $500, walked back to little Jenny and her father and gave them the money. I told them I would be back within 20-30 minutes with a camera to do a story on them that I would be posting on CNN’s iReport. I told them I would do anything needed, anything I was able and anything that was necessary to get them support. And that’s exactly what I did.
I went home, grabbed up my camera and went racing back to the CVS to put them on video to tell their story. The vision of this amazing, trusting and innocent child had been seared into my head. For 30 straight minutes I could not hold back the tears, the sorrow I felt for her, for her father, but especially for her.
When I got back there my heart broke again, they were gone. The security guard that works in that strip mall told me he saw them walk off toward the ocean, closer to downtown. I left him my phone number with him in case he spotted them again. He told me they had been there off and on for 3 days, washing up in the McDonald’s in the morning. Another man that works in the area told me the same thing.
I searched for another hour, but could not locate them. I can’t ever remember being so moved by such a tragic scene in my lifetime. The little girl’s eyes, they had such sadness in them. She seemed so lost. She didn’t seem to understand why all this was happening to her. Wiping the dirt from her cheek, telling her father she was hungry. My God, my heart is broken today. I still cannot hold back the tears.
The picture above isn’t her, but it tells the story of what I saw today.
Tomorrow I will return. I will look for them at the shelters. I will seek them out until I find them. No matter what it takes, I will find them and I WILL find a way to help this little girl who disappeared far too soon from my life.
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