Iowa family vacationing in Florida searching for son’s missing ashes
By Megan Mellado
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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (WESH) — An Iowa couple who was visiting Florida last month is asking for help finding a special stuffed animal.
Liz Atkinson says she was on a trip to Florida with her husband and son, Sebastyan, visiting the beaches and theme parks when they lost the stuffed animal named Bruce somewhere along the way.
“I remember Sebastyan holding him, but my husband got off the boat with him first and he’s the one that buckled him,” Atkinson said. “Part of me just wonders, did it fall out in the parking lot at the orange ramp at Disney Springs and we just didn’t know?”
The family had to return home but posted on Facebook asking for the public’s help finding Bruce. The task is close to their hearts—not because of Bruce’s cute and cuddly appearance, but because of where he’s been and what’s inside him.
“Bruce has been at every hospitalization. There’s far too many to count. He’s been with my son at every procedure,” Atkinson said. “My son that’s surviving holds Bruce and cries when he’s missing his brother.”
Atkinson’s other son, Gabryel, passed away just days shy of his 8th birthday due to a number of medical issues.
Some of his ashes were placed inside the stuffed animal, which the family took to Disney in honor of him because he always wanted to go.
Now, Atkinson says hundreds of people have messaged her about finding Bruce.
“People that don’t even know me have stepped up and said ‘We’ll go look for you. We can’t imagine.’ People have spent their whole days off just retracing my steps for me and talking to people and just trying to get out there, so hopefully, wherever he is, he gets back home,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson says someone at the Cocoa Beach Marina watched surveillance cameras that showed her son Sebastyan carrying Bruce to the family’s car.
That means he made it to the Disney Springs area, but the rest of the trip, Atkinson says, is unclear. The family went to Planet Hollywood and the LEGO store before staying in Kissimmee.
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