On Wednesday I Aged Ten Years

On Wednesday morning THGGM, my parents and I set out for Wisconsin.

THGGM thought it would be 'fun' to drive through Chicago rather than around it.

He has a sick idea of what is fun. Exciting, yes. But fun? Hmm. Not so much.

Our first destination was Gurnee Mills. A LARGE mall northwest of Chicago.

We didn't plan to spend much time there, so we split up. My parents went off on their own, and THGGM and I split up.

I spent my hour in Archieves, a scrapbooking store. I didn't buy a thing.

Our planned time to met was 2:30. At 2:30 my parents weren't there yet. This is EXTREMELY odd, because my parents were only ever late for one thing in their lives (and, now that i think about it, it was a bus trip to . . . Gurnee Mills!). Ten minutes later, my dad shows up - alone.

A half hour before, he and my mom had each gone into the bathroom. He reminded her to WAIT RIGHT HERE for him. She didn't. He looked for her for twenty minutes and then headed off to the designated meeting place.

Right there. Standing at entrance "F" at Gurnee Mills, I aged 10 years.

I also learned that just about everybody has a red coat this year. And that many many many shoppers are white haired ladies.

My dad stood at entrance "F" in case she were to remember that we planned to meet there. THGGM and I each took off - me, to check all of the women's bathrooms, and he - to the information booth.

Silly me. I had assumed that major malls near major cities would have security cameras, at the very least at all of the entrances. This mall does not.

They put out an All Points Bulletin and we continued our search. My dad stayed put, THGGM went into the parking lot and I continued the search while praying that God would send her to me.

As I was approaching the Rainforest Cafe, there she was. Walking fast and looking all around. I was never so glad to see anyone in my life! This was at 3:30, which means she was on her own for at least an hour and 20 minutes. And, she HAD gone out into the parking lot, to find the car. Which of course, she never would have, as she was at the wrong entrance and we drove in our car.

She KNEW she was missing. That surprised me. The first thing she said to me is "Dad is going to be SO mad at me! He says I wander off all the time. This is going to RUIN our vacation!"

I assured her that dad would be too happy to see her to be mad. She was limping from walking for so long, so as soon as THGGM saw us, we sat down. He went to find dad and let the security people know that we had found her.

While mom and I waited for them to drive around to the entrance where we were, she looked at me and said "I probably shouldn't ask what took them so long, should I?" and then we laughed.

Hello. My name is Judy, and on Wednesday morning I was 48 years old. Now, I am 58.