ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Iowa family back from vacationing in Central Florida has searched everywhere to no avail for “Bruce,” a stuffed elephant that belonged to their late son Gabryel and now contains a bag of his ashes.
Described in a Facebook post, Bruce was given to Gabryel while he was in the NICU, present there forward for each of his many surgeries and hospitalizations. The vacation — arranged in Gabryel’s memory, as he died before he could visit Disney — set out with the stuffed animal in company, but Bruce did not return.
Recommended Videos
“The trip was a bit hectic with 3 different cities and hotels and grief brain kicked in at some point with all of the emotions, making me really struggle with simple memory tasks,” Liz Atkinson, Gabryel’s mother, said in the post. “...Because vehicles get messy on trips, I kept thinking maybe he was just mixed in somewhere (very unlike me, I know where everything is 100% of the time even on trips, thank you grief) but once we got home May 1 I searched EVERYWHERE. Every bag. He’s gone.”
Now, Atkinson is pleading with Central Florida for help locating Bruce, offering details of where her family visited during the April trip in hopes more ground can be covered.
[TRENDING: Become a News 6 Insider]
According to Atkinson, her family stayed at a seaside resort in Cocoa Beach from April 22-24.
The family brought Bruce boat parasailing with Cocoa Beach Parasail at 9 a.m., April 24, but Atkinson stated she could not recall whether Bruce was brought back into their vehicle.
The family drove to Disney Springs on April 24, staying for several hours before checking in at the Palazzo Lakeside Hotel in Kissimmee where they stayed until April 25.
“I don’t recall ever carrying him from the vehicle to our hotel room (usually he would’ve been packed inside the suitcase but because of parasailing he wasn’t). It was storming so we split up bringing things in into many trips,” Atkinson said.
On April 25, the family drove to Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, staying there until April 30. There, too, Bruce was nowhere to be found.
Atkinson encouraged anyone who may find Bruce to contact her directly. Her Facebook post had been shared over 3,800 times at last check.
“If you’ve found Bruce or saw him around any of these locations, please PM me!!! I need him back,” Atkinson said. “I really think he is probably somewhere in the parking lot near cocoa beach parasailing, the palazzo, or the orange parking ramp of Disney springs maybe from falling out of the car.”
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: