My heart, my thoughts and my prayers go out to Brandon Crisp’s family and friends…and to everyone who was involved in the search for him.

(Brandon was the fifteen-year-old Canadian boy who took off from his home three and a half weeks ago…and disappeared.) There had been no trace of his whereabouts…that is until his abandoned bike, having a flat tire, was found a week later.

Everybody had been filled with hope that the young boy would be found…that he would return home safe and sound and that life would go on as before.

And then two days ago, after 1600 volunteers had been involved in a search for Brandon, deer hunters stumbled upon his body.

(Brandon was only a few hundred yards from where searchers had already looked…and a few kilometers from where he lived.)

He had run away from home when his parents took away his Xbox console because of what they said was his addiction to the online game “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.”

The game had become his identity. And according to media reports, his parents now realize that Brandon must have been devastated when it was taken away. Had he committed suicide? Had he died from exposure? Although no foul play is suspected in Brandon’s death, police say they are examining every possibility.

I’m sure his parents’ are feeling numb…are almost paralyzed in a world of unreality…hardly believing they will never see or touch their child again.

This is one of those times when those of us who are parents, will be hugging our children a little closer tonight…and feeling a choking tightness in our throat…while those parents who’ve experienced the death of a child will weep as they revisit memories of those excruciating moments when they learned their child was deceased.

It isn’t fair, is it?

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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