From last week’s Seattle Times Mercer Island parents describe ordeal of 9-year-old girl’s kidnapping, rescue
Dexter Lai remembers clearly the moment when the Lais were reunited with their daughter in Monroe. “She was so precious,” he said. “She came in and said, ‘I want to hug both of you,’ so we both together gave her a hug.”
At 1:30 a.m., the family went to a Denny’s restaurant, where their daughter wolfed down a club sandwich and iced tea. J even comforted her emotional and exhausted mother by offering her a jacket as a pillow, patting her on the back and saying, “Don’t worry, it’s OK. I’m OK now,” Dexter Lai said.
Amazing to think that this child, after being kidnapped, was the one comforting her mother, rather than her mother comforting her. Children are resilient. But perhaps too this girl didn’t realize how close she might have come to her death on her birthday, when she was abducted.
