Last month Stacie hopped on the momdot forums and told us of her insane experience being robbed at gunpoint in the Bahamas. We were just flabbergasted. To top it off, she was on a blogger trip for Disney (first time ever I was glad I wasn’t invited!). They forced her to the ground and her entire tour group was robbed of all their IDs and money.
You can read about her experience here on her blog now.
For Stacie, it was terrifying thinking of her family at home and her children.
She hasn’t blogged much since then and I have recently learned she is having a hard time getting out of bed and recovering from the nightmares of the entire situation. I wont say I understand. I can’t understand what it would be like to be on the ground with a gun pointed at me, wondering if I would see Chris or Charlotte again. It would most certainly make me never want to leave the house again and I rarely leave now.
It’s really affected her life.
Stacie is a wonderful person. I have met her many times at Blog events and she has a huge heart.
(blondie, me, stacie)
As a virtual friend its so hard to reach out to someone that needs a hug, but if you could leave her a comment here so we can send to her, blog about her with some love on your own space, or even leave her a comment on her site for when she returns, I am sure it wont go unnoticed.
Stacie, I just want to share with you my similar experience…my first cruise, ever, and we boarded in Florida, Miami, Florida, and I had never been there either…anywho, I had my then five year old son with me, it was night-time and he was fast asleep when a few fellow “cruisers” knocked on my door and invited me downstairs to have a drink with them. Knowing that my son never woke during the night, I accepted their offer. I know, not very smart. The three of us, one of whom was a police officer, and his wife and me went to the downstairs “club”, had a drink together and headed back to our rooms…we were immediately mugged by three “foreigners” who wanted our money…I didn’t have my purse or anything and had already spent my five dollars, so one of the thugs ripped my watch and my wedding ring right off of me and slapped my face I guess because I had no money. All three of them were armed. They ran off and the three of us were grateful to be alive, including the cop, who immediately handed the thugs his wallet, ID, etc. When I returned to my room, I cried my eyes out. What if I had been killed with my little boy all alone in our hotel room? What if one (or more) of the thugs insisted I take him back to my room? OMG! I had nightmares about this for months, along with feelings of guilt and stupidity. Naturally, I couldn’t tell anyone about it. I felt like such a bad mother. It all seemed so innocent at first. It’s so intrusive, a personal invasion. No one should have to fear for their life. I didn’t do anything terribly wrong and didn’t deserve to be threatened and violated this way. The good news is I did finally put it behind me. The nightmares just stopped one day and have never returned. I healed myself, and you will too, in time. We cannot control the actions of others. We just do what’s necessary to survive the incident to be able to tell about it later. You survived, that tells me you did the right thing. You were in control of your actions then just like you are now, and probably stronger (and wiser) because of it. Let yourself move on now. Warmest regards, and don’t repeat my story to anyone, LOL!