I'm sobbing...PLEASE read this and get window guards!

From here:

Caroline falls asleep on the floor. Sometimes under the bed, sometimes under the side table... once inside an open dresser drawer. I usually check on her around nine; move her into her bed, pull up the quilt, smooth the hair away from her face.

Tonight I took Patrick up to his room. Gave him an apple. Left him with a book.

I kept his door open just a little for the cat and went to Caroline. Her room felt cold and I remembered that she only has the one heating duct and thought it might be time to add a duvet to her bed. Her bed was empty. I checked under it - not there either. I moved to the other side of the room and looked under her little table. My heart started to pound. I looked under the bed again. Felt the piled up quilt, opened her closet door, crouched to peer under the dresser. My heart was racing as I looked toward the window where the shade was drawn. The room was cold.

I shoved the shade out of the way - ripping it - and saw the open window, saw the screen pushed onto the porch roof a few feet below, felt the wet air and I almost threw up.

"Caroline?" I put my head out. I looked along the length of the porch roof. It was so dark. "CAROLINE?"

I ran.

I ran into Patrick's room.

"Caroline's gone. Her window is open. Patrick get daddy."

I ran downstairs. Out the front door. I looked along the front walk, in the bushes - to the right of her window the porch roof drops off two more stories onto a concrete patio. I looked there too.

I ran back inside. Found Steve in the shower. Shouted at him. Shouted nonsense. Tried again, said "Steve my god Steve Caroline's window is open. She's gone. I can't find her. Steve I can't find her."

We searched outside. Called her name. Looked into all the dark edges around the house.

Steve went up to her room. I followed and stood there as he crawled out the window onto the roof, calling her name. Over and over.

Then I heard, "Caroline, Caroline, oh sweetheart, here, I'm coming, Daddy's right here, I'm coming."

And he was handing her through the window to me, wet and dirty, holding her pink blankie. She had been crouched in front of Patrick's window on the porch roof, twenty feet away from us. Had she fallen asleep out there?

I held her for a long time. Tucked her into bed. Told her to never ever climb out the window again. Told her I loved her more than salt.

And then we double-locked every goddamned window in this house.

This is a post of thanks I suppose. An acknowledgement that something unthinkable could have happened, almost happened, did not happen. We were luckier than we deserved to be. How did she open that window? I may never sleep again. Caroline, strong tiny beautiful, Caroline, alone in the dark on a wet sloping roof. I will never sleep again.

But I can be grateful. And I can tell you to go lock your windows, too, just in case.

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 23 2008 Posts: 9074

It happened to my DD. She fell from the 2nd floor, bounced off a bike & hit concrete. Too long to go into now, but it was a ness. Dealing with the authorities was just as traumatizing.

I'm the lunatic in Shul who screams "GET THAT KID AWAY FROM THE WINDOW!!!" because the Shul refuses to put up window guards. Actually, I'm the lunatic who screams it anywhere.

Parents: Please don't let your kids peer out of unguarded, open windows even if you're sitting there. It takes 1 second to topple out. Trust me, BTDT. Crying or Very sad

Ever since eric clapton's tot ....I get anxious at toddlers and windows in highrises.

so sad
_________________

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 07 2007 Posts: 10429

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 22 2008 Posts: 6431

I saw the title and I instantly thought of this blog post! I clicked in and sure enough there it is. If you read any other posts, you will see Caroline is very active and climbs EVERYWHERE and gets into EVERYTHING.... I think she wrote in one post that she is afraid to keep a chest of drawers in her daughter's room....

A few weeks after my sister moved into her new house, a neighbor called and asked her if she knew where her kids were. Of course, she said they were playing upstairs while she was making dinner.

No - the neighbor said - they are on your roof.

Yes - her two kids had climbed out of a second floor window onto the sloping front veranda, and from there had CLIMBED UP ON THE ROOF.

You can bet she got locks for that window.
_________________
Chayalle

Posted: Fri, Sep 17 2010, 2:23 pm Post subject:

I didn't move into my apt until there were gates on all windows. There were sadly many stores happening to little kids falling out of apt building windows from high floors.
_________________
Sunday social program forming in Brooklyn for children with social delays. Pm me for more info
~complimentary ad for being a mod

Posted: Fri, Sep 17 2010, 3:30 pm Post subject:

A simple solution for those that cant afford window guards: Hammer a nail into the casing above the window. High enough that it can be opened a few inches for air, but low enough for a childs safety.
_________________
If you're gonna be blue, be bright blue!

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48155

Isn't that the landlord's responsibility, by law? Whenever I sell an apt, it's discussed. It's always in our rentals, always.

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48155

Isn't that the landlord's responsibility, by law? Whenever I sell an apt, it's discussed. It's always in our rentals, always.

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 22 2008 Posts: 6431

In Rabbi Krohn's latest book there is a story about a 4 year old girl who fell from her mirpeset, and how the community rallied to devote a community Shabbaton to her recovery. My dh showed Rabbi Krohn that mirpeset and told him that story; the girl is our neighbor. IY"H on Simchas Torah she will turn 13, a wonderful, healthy, lively, great frum kid. But she was in a coma for 3 weeks. Be very careful.

The family makes a kiddush hodaah every year. It's horrible to imagine what they might have lost. Such a fantastic girl!

Posted: Sat, Sep 18 2010, 5:34 pm Post subject:

If you haven't had guards/ railings fitted, lock the window/ mirpeset till you do.

There was a 2 yr old in my ds's gan a few years ago who fell from a mirpeset soon after the family moved in and were meaning to put up higher railings (it had the low railings meant for adults, not toddlers). Unfortunately that story doesn't have a happy end Sad

_________________
"The problem begins with... their political hangers oners... such as Anat Hoffman. She is a davener like I am a chinese belly dancer." (FS)

Professional Hebrew>English translations - pm me for details.
(Complimentary ad as mod)

When I was a young girl in elementary school, there was a teacher who had a fire in her house. She escaped with her husband, then both ran back in for their children. The father saved their daughter, but the mother and her 2 sons were not so lucky due to having bars on the window in their room-that they could not open.

These were ground floor windows. I think they make them with safety devices for easy emergency openings now, but I remember the horror to this day.

Diamond Member Joined: May 20 2007 Posts: 2838

Now I'm really freaked out, shanie5. So what to do, bars or no bars?

Posted: Sat, Sep 18 2010, 11:12 pm Post subject:

Posted: Sat, Sep 18 2010, 11:42 pm Post subject:

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 29 2005 Posts: 3592

I love that blog.

My DD was also a Caroline-like child - could disappear in the blink of an eye, had no fear and I had to watch her like a hawk. Even so, she escaped many times.

We made aliyah when she was 3 1/2. We have a lovely mirpeset with a straight drop long enough to....I don't even want to say it. I kept the doors to the mirpeset locked and never left her there alonge - and it wasn't the height of the railings that bothered me, it was the gap between the bottom of the railing and the mirpeset floor - supposedly build to standards but enough for even a 4 year old to slide through.

We have bars on all our windows and though it's not the most beautiful thing, it would have been just too dangerous.

we have windows in 2 parts - the top part is very small and that is what we open when needed. The bottom is kept locked always. once my cleaning lady opened it and my ds wondered onto the (slightly slanting) roof. bh he was not hurt but it was a scary reminder.

make sure to tell your cleaning help and other family members about not leaving windows/mirpesets open.

dh is paranoid about anythign to do with windows. we have been in the same apt for over ten years and all windows are alwyas locked shut.
BARUCH HASHEM, we just signed a guy to do the sorgim on the windows an hour ago.

BTW, do you make a bracha on sorgim?