The commute home from the zoo didn’t take long. Once we arrived home everyone began to load the car with my mother’s belongings. My mother, and three sisters, Sam, Nichole, and Karlie, decided to move Lehi to Emery county. I couldn’t understand why they had to move, so I asked my mom “Why are you moving? Are you and dad fighting?” She giggled and replied “No Haylee. We are moving to go get Sam ready for high school. You and Brinn will move up there in a couple of months with dad. Now go take your younger sisters and cousins in your room and play a game so you can get out of our way.” Following my mother’s orders I told everyone to go in my room. Spongebob Bubble Pop was the game of our choice.
The youngest in my family was Karlie. Blond hair with our mom’s baby blue eyes. Even at just 20 months she had become the toughest person I ever knew. She could fall right on her face, and get up giggling. Her favorite movies were Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life, and Monsters Inc. She loved to play hide and seek as well. We all loved having her around. Karlie, being too young to play the game, sat on the bed and ate cookies while the older kids played. We played the game for hours seeing who could pop the most bubbles with one ball, or who could stop the evil Plankton from taking over the Krusty Krab.
When we found the game no longer appealing to us we turned it off. My mom soon came in and told us that we needed to go eat, so I went to grab Karlie from the bed, but she wasn’t there. Karlie apparently grew tired of watching us have fun, so somewhere between us defeating the evil Plankton and popping bubbles, Karlie silently got up and left the room without anyone noticing. At first I just guessed that she had gone into my dad’s room to give him a cookie, so we walked in there and asked him “Dad, have you seen Karlie?” He replied “She was in here a little while ago, and gave me a cookie, but left soon after that.” I began to panic as I searched through the house with Karlie no where to be found. When I searched the back porch I found something that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was the back door, wide open. I told my mom, grabbed a flashlight, and went outside to find Karlie.
The thought of my 20 month old sister outside by herself scared the heck out of me, so as I walked around the yard looking for Karlie a million things went through my head. I thought that maybe she had just fallen asleep somewhere in the house, and we just happened to not see her. That maybe someone had just accidentally forgot to shut the back door after taking the trash out, or feeding the horses. It also crossed my mind that my little sister could be hurt in some way, but even the worst thing that I thought of couldn’t compare to what was about to happen.
After walking up and down the road for what seemed like a lifetime, I said to myself, “Dear God, please help me. Help me find my sister. I need to find her. I need to see her bright and smiling face again. Karlie hasn’t done anything wrong. Just give her back to us. She’s too young for something bad to happen to her. If anything bad has to happen let it happen to me,” but before I could finish pleading with god, my prayer was soon answered.
Sirens started coming from my house. I knew then that they had found my little sister. My legs instantly began to move as fast as they could to get to her, but My mom stopped me at the barn and said, “Go next door to Aunt Paige’s house while we go to the hospital with Karlie.” She started to walked away, but I still wanted to know where Karlie had been found, so I shouted, “Mom! Where’s Karlie?” Her reply instantly brought tears to my eyes. She said, “Uncle Anthony found her in the irrigation ditch. I’ve got to take the ambulance to her. Just go next door Haylee. I‘ll call you kids when we know what‘s going on.”
Waiting at my Aunt’s house tore us all apart. Not knowing how my sister was doing began to slowly kill us. I would compare the agony of waiting to having someone slowly rip your skin off bit by bit. You just want them to do it all at once to make the pain end and for it to be over and done with, but instead they drag it out only taking enough to cause pain, and make it last for as long as they want.
After hours of waiting my aunt came into the room and said that my parent’s had called and that they want us at the hospital. We got in the car and drove to the hospital. When we pulled up to the hospital I jumped on my cousin Jordan’s shoulders and he carried me into the waiting room. As we walked in I saw my mom and dad sitting there, holding each other while they cried. I had never seen my dad cry before. I wondered what could be making him cry like this? Isn’t he happy Karlie is okay, but then he looked at me and with that one look from my dad I instantly knew that Karlie wasn’t okay.
When I woke up this morning I never could have guessed the day would have ended like this. Nothing could have stopped it from happening and nothing can heal the pain that we all feel in our hearts because of it. I’ll always remember today, March 28, 2004, as the day that my sweet little baby sister, Karlie Blair Beckstead, left this world and changed my life forever.
