What it's like to be the sibling of a missing person

This is such an excellent article about siblings of missing people, I had to share it. It's by Simon Hattenstone for the Guardian newspaper and really is very good. Brothers and sisters of the missing suffer terribly in all sorts of ways - and are often passed the burden of searching for their missing sibling if parents die - but it's rare to read such a thoughtful article about them.

The cases covered are all UK missing and range from Manic Street Preachers' musician Richard 'Richey' Edwards (missing since 1995) to 4 year-old Sandy Davidson (missing 39 years). It's a unique article I think, and very sensitively written. I really recommend it. Here are a few quotes from the long article.

“When my parents went looking for Kevin, they always looked up, not down. They got pally with the parents of another boy and they were very negative, always looking down under bushes. Mum convinced them to have this little bit of hope. ‘You always have to look up,’ she’d say.”

Click to expand...

Rachel knows how many people go missing, but says it’s an isolating experience: “Other people don’t know what to say to you or how to treat you.” Over the years, she has found comfort through Missing People. On her mother’s mantelpiece, there are framed pictures of families. I ask who they are. “Other families with missing people,” Rachel says. “They have become friends.”

Click to expand...

Throughout her childhood, her mother worried desperately for her and her younger brother’s safety. Now, Donna says, she’s the same with her own children. “I’ve been overprotective to my kids. The youngest, who’s 15 and Sandy’s spitting image, is a horror. You never know where he is. Whenever my kids go out, my stomach’s in knots.”

Click to expand...

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...people-brothers-and-sisters-simon-hattenstone

Photo is of little Sandy Davidson, snatched and still missing after nearly 40 years.

Thank you so much for sharing that Zwiebel.