Our world imploded yesterday afternoon at 4:15 pm when I answered the phone and heard Constable Despins of the Summerland RCMP ask me if Jordan Chartier was my son. I can’t even type those words without crying. He is fine, or at least safe, but the last 18 hours have been very difficult and we aren’t out of the woods yet.

Constable Despins was calling to tell me that Jordan had been spotted at 1000 am yesterday on a private acreage in the Summerland area. When approached by a neighbor who told him he couldn’t stay there, Jordan replied that he had to leave his car and belongings, that he was “wanted” by the police but that she shouldn’t worry, he wasn’t a bad guy.  He offered her his spare keys so that she could move his car and belongings and when she declined  he jumped on his skateboard and took off with just the clothes on his back. She was disturbed enough by this encounter to call the RCMP. When they arrived they found he had left his laptop and cellphone and clothes on a picnic table. His passport and driver’s license were in the car. He had taken off the license plate and locked it in his trunk. The Constable wanted to know if we knew what he was doing in the area and if he was traveling with someone. We had no idea.

The next few hours are a bit of a blur. Between Facebook, text messaging and cellphones we managed to contact his friends and piece together the last couple of days. Perhaps someday in the far away future when I am not so raw, I can give a presentation called “social networking saved my son”. Today I am just unbelievably grateful that this new generation is wired.

I am also grateful to my brother in law Dave who used his connections with the police force to confirm that Jordan was not in trouble and that we weren’t making the situation worse for him by bringing in the RCMP to find him. I can’t even find words to describe how I feel about Tom and DeeDee Maltman, who in the middle of dealing with their own family emergency in Kelowna, combed the streets of Summerland last night looking for my son. And I can never express  how grateful we are to Jordan’s friend Adam, who called us back at 1030 last night and said “We were talking about this at football practice and I think I need to tell you a little more about his behaviour Sunday night”. He put the final pieces of the puzzle together for us.

Sometime Sunday Jordan began “zoning out” as Adam puts it. Acting agitated, talking about someone coming to get him. He hung a sheet up in the entrance to the family room to block the view from the front door. I have no doubt he is the reason all the spare keys hidden outside have disapeared. While they were in the middle of watching a movie, he bolted out of the house at 3 in the morning and when Adam tracked him down by cellphone it appeared that he had been hiding in the bushes. He claimed he heard sirens and knew they were coming for him. There were no sirens. He packed everything he owned and claimed he was going to the lake. When Adam asked him why he was packing all his stuff, he just said “don’t worry about it”.

With that information we were able to convince the RCMP that they weren’t looking for a suspect, they were looking for a kid who was in deep trouble. And there is a special place in heaven for Constable Luscomb and his partner who made it a priority last night to find my kid and who were finally able to call us with good news at 2 AM.

Greg and Dave had already booked tickets for the 0530 flight to Kelowna; prepared to launch a search and rescue mission. Packing a plastic bag with your son’s dirty laundry so that the search dogs would have a scent is something I pray I never to have to do again. Because the ticket was already bought in his name, and because he was terrified to leave his other son alone, Greg insisted on flying out by himself this morning and is about half an hour away from reaching Jordan as I type this. I’ve just hung up from a conversation with the mental health nurse who confirmed that Jordan is in full blown psychosis – it’s too early to know exactly what is going on or to make a prognosis. The psychiatrist flies in from Vernon on Thursday – they have him on a 48 hour hold till then. Jordan hasn’t slept or eaten in over 72 hours. They were finally able to get him to take some meds this morning so hopefully he will sleep.

I am trying to focus on the fact that he is safe and getting the care he needs. I am trying really hard not to think about all the “s” words like suicide and schizophrenia or to think about what might have happened if that woman hadn’t recognized a kid in distress and called the RCMP. We could very well have lost him.

Despite Greg’s insistence that there is no point in us both being out there, I desperately need to see and hold my son and talk to his physician face to face. However I will wait till we talk to the psychiatrist tommorow before booking a flight – who knows, it may take us awhile to get him stable enough to travel and we may need to tag team for a couple of weeks.

Please please don’t phone me. I am barely holding it together and when I have to talk about it out loud I lose it. I know you all love me and Jordan and that you will be keeping us in your thoughts. I will keep you posted in regards to my travel plans and Jordan’s status.