Adoption and Family,  parenting,  special needs

Hats Off to Good Samaritans at Covent Garden Market

This is my daughter Ainsley. No great coincidence that she is always in this hat. She loves this hat and would sleep with it on if she could. 
This past week she went back to school with her hat firmly in place on her head. It’s warm, and for Ainsley, with sensory processing disorder, it helps cut out noise and even filter out some peripheral vision. She loves her hat. This hat has been a fixture on her head since I bought it in Toronto approximately 2 years ago when on business there.
So this week when we went skating at Covent Garden Market and she took it off to put her helmet on, then forgot to grab it after we left to pick her sister up, we noticed its absence fast. We hunted high and low and realized we last saw it while skating. I wrote it off as parents sometimes do.
But Ainsley was adamant. When she gets an idea in her head, it sticks. (For instance recently we spoke at Children’s Aid together on a panel where she made friends with a 16-year-old boy in foster care. She has asked me every week since then if I can phone and find out if he’s okay. Then perhaps we could adopt him she suggests. Big heart. Bigger determination.) 
I told her we’d go look for her hat. When we got to the skating rink – no big surprise – we couldn’t find it. My girly sat down and had a cry. (It’s special to me, she said. I miss its smell)
I tried to tell her while I was sorry it was lost I could easily buy her a new one, but she wasn’t buying any of that. So we tried one more thing. 
The rink attendant suggested we try the market office Lost and Found. 
Together, we knocked on the door and asked.
I was very sure nobody would turn a scruffy old children’s hat in and yet, we asked.
I know from experience this child will not back down when she is driven to find something, or do something, or wants something bad enough.
So we asked.
“Do you mean this one here?” a lady said. “It’s still damp, someone just turned it in, I think.”
Hats off to Covent Garden Market and whoever turned our old Hibou wool hat in. You made my daughter’s week. Mine too. 

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.

2 Comments

  • Country Mouse, City Mouse

    Such a great story, Paula! I love that someone took a moment and made the difference in your girls life. They didn’t know how much it meant to her I’m sure, yet it is huge in her young life. She’ll remember this kind act and pay it forward in her own way, I’m sure.