All I could think was that it could have been mine. I wanted to drive to Midland and hug that other Mommy, whos baby was down the well. I understood how quickly they can just not be where you thought they were. I could only imagine how she was feeling and the terror in her heart for her baby girl.
What were we all watching? What could have been so important in our lives for 58 solid hours? The newest heart throb and his sweety breaking up? What congress was doing to affect the lives of those around us? The newest I Phone being introduced? Nope. We were all hoping, praying and crying for a little 18 month old girl named Jessica.
It all started on October 14, 1987. For 58 hours, the world around me, also, sat in awe of what was unfolding outside of Midland Texas. CNN, then a fledgling cable news outlet, was on the scene with around-the-clock coverage of the rescue effort. This massive media saturation of the ordeal prompted then-President Ronald Reagan to state that "everybody in America became godmothers and godfathers of Jessica while this was going on." There were people in countries we barely even knew of in Europe and Asia who were tuned in and watching.
Baby Jessica McClure (born March 26, 1986) had fallen into a well in the backyard of 3309 Tanner Dr. Midland, Texas, on October 14, 1987. Between that day and October 16, rescuers worked for 58 hours to free her from the eight-inch-wide well casing 22 feet below the ground.
Her mommy helped keep her calm by singing the Winnie the Pooh song with her with a microphone that had been strung down the hole so that they could hear her and she could hear them.
For me personally, I had a beautiful blonde baby girl who was a month older than Jessica. I was a full time working mommy who spent about 10 hours a day away from my baby. She was in the care of her grandmother, the person I trusted most if I could not be there, my very own mother. But just knowing that not a thing guaranteed us a single minute with the people around us much less the children that we had been so blessed to have was more than I could deal with in those hours. I don't really remember anyone asking HOW could this happen? We seemed to KNOW things just happened. EVERYONE however, DID seem to be asking NOW, what do we DO about it. And everyone got to work.
Today, marks 25 years since that day that we watched a crew of people who did everything with in their power and even invented some new things, crying and laughing and clapping their hands as the cable came up bringing that sweet little girl into the light still alive and breathing. We watched the medics run with her toward the waiting ambulance to take her to care. We watched the doctors that were crowded around the top of the whole give up their time and run along side to get her to the care she would need after dehydration and lack of circulation had taken its tole on her little bitty body.
Happy Rebirthday Jessica. I hope your world is wonderful. May God continue to bless and keep you and your family as long as you live.
