Thanks from family for finding child

"Nana, I need a Band-Aid," was the sound my mother awoke to Saturday, July 28. The sound of her grandchild's voice was music to her ears. After tending to the two-year old she decided to go check on her other overnight guests, a 3½-year-old and 7-year-old, only to find the 7-year-old in bed alone. She searched the three-story house, woke my father, and the two of them searched again. Nothing. Then, they saw the back door; it was cracked, moving the search outside.

Immediately their attention was drawn to the multiple police cars, fire truck and ambulance at the end of the block. As my father ran barefoot down the street he tried to keep his mind from entertaining the endless possibilities. With both fear and anticipation he ran past the officer and peered into the open ambulance to find the blond-haired cherub resting on an officer as he lay on the gurney comforting her. His sigh of relief was a familiar enough sound to her that she quickly turned and dove toward him as glad to see him as he was her.

A missing child is every parent's nightmare; grandparents in this case. We are eternally grateful to the airport-bound Good Samaritan who called the police, suspecting that even Spiderman pajamas didn't give a three year old cause to be out at 4:30 in the morning. Thanks also to the Wheaton Police officers and other emergency personnel whose compassion helped turn a potentially tragic situation around and keep it off the front page.

Dan and EmLee Dooley (parents)

West Brooklyn, Ill.

Don and Carolyn Price (grandparents)

Wheaton