People Mocked Me When My Card Got Declined While I Was Holding My Baby Granddaughter—Then a Voice Behind Me Said, ‘Ma’am. You With the Baby’

“I’m going to clear my head, Mom,” she said quietly, kissing the baby’s forehead.

“Okay, sweetheart,” I replied, stirring oatmeal on the stove.

“Don’t stay out too long. It’s cold.”

But she never came back.

I didn’t notice the folded note sitting on the counter near the coffeepot. Not until the next morning, when I was cleaning up after another sleepless night.

The words on it were brief, just one sentence scrawled in her handwriting: “Mom, I can’t do this. Don’t try to find me.”

I called her phone 20 times that day. Then 50.

Then I lost count.

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