Pilgrim Soldier

Yesterday Zoe came to me in the office and said that our Director of Social Work had seen one of the boys who used to come to Patvērums on a missing child advert. In many ways it has really knocked the stuffing out of me.

He is a difficult kid and compulsive liar, but at the same time had so much potential and we cared so much about him. He was an irregular visitor to the centre for just over a year or so. His family background was extremely tough and there were rumours of sexual abuse. He tried to encourage some of our other boys to visit an older man that he knew, and the social services were supposed to be looking out for him. That was all 4 years ago now, and over the intervening period we’ve often thought we saw him, but were never 100% sure.

Now the questions come! Where is he? Is he safe? How did his situation reach this stage? Could we have done more for him than we did?