A Father Left His Son Alone For Just 2 Minutes, And Spent The Rest Of His Life Regretting It

Nearly 1 million children go missing every year all across the globe. That’s nearly 1 million kids who end up in unfamiliar places, surrounded by unknown people and frightening circumstances. It’s enough to traumatize an adult, let alone a child.

Li Jingzhi, a woman from Shaanxi Province in northwest China, lived through the unimaginable experience of losing her son. She was a mother without her child for 32 years. Unfortunately, at the time, China was experiencing a surge in child abductions, and Jingzhi was one of many parents who had their child taken from them during a difficult period in the country’s history.

“[Economic modernization] will be impossible unless the peasants have fewer children,” said Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader who implemented the one-child policy in 1979, cited as one of the reasons for the kidnappings.

But Jingzhi’s relentless search happened after an ordinary day in Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi, where she lived with her then-husband, Mao Zhenjing, and their beloved toddler, Mao Yin. And all it took was a trip to the family-owned hotel for their lives to change forever.