Abby! Your friends love you! We love you! Everybody, everybody loves you! We all got together -friends and family – to show you our support! I could just imagine you being there with us. We know, the day will come when you will!
Today, the six month mark – it started as one of the worst days of my life. Heavy. I didn’t even think I could make it through. I never get sick, but today I was nauseated and dizzy. Then, Abby’s closest friends and our close supporters came, Mish came. We all worked on the poster, even ran out of ink in markers. We wished that Abby were here, and it seemed as if she was.
Wednesday will be six months. Six months since we last saw Abby. We dread it, but hope that maybe we won’t have to face this day. We hope, as we hope every day, that today will be the day when we see Abby.
Each day comes and goes, and the new day arrives, with its new hope, and then the hope dies. We reach these milestones, no matter how abhorrent and painful they are.
In the beginning, minutes and hours lasted eternity. Hours turned to days, weeks, months. In the first days, I didn’t think I could survive the blinding shock, not even for a week. The shock turned to despair, the ache, a scorch of doubt, the lasting heavy pain. Everywhere we go, we look for you. Everyone we talk to, we talk to them thinking that maybe they know.
There were times, when hopes went way up. They came crushing down.
Abby is all we think about and all we talk about.
There is a lot we don’t know. One thing I know, is how much I love Abby. I know that she is compassionate, smart, funny, a caring friend, a loving daughter, a great writer, skier, climber, and musician. Survivor. There is nothing, nothing that will shake my love for Abby, and there is nothing that will make me lose hope.
Abby, your friends wrote you some letters that they wanted to share with you. Some of them are written below and some are in the video too.
Abby, here is another friend reading her letter to you. Below this letter are letters from three other friends
AUDIO Dear Abby ,
Ever since you left, a blanket of depression has covered everyone in the school. Even the people who never got the privilege to meet you and get to know you like the way I know you. We all just sit in shock from everything.
One of the hardest things is knowing that I can’t talk to you when I need you the most. Like if this same thing happened but to someone we both know and isn’t you, you’d be the first person I’d go to to talk about it. But I can’t because you’re not here.. No one understands me as well as you do. Even my parents. I just feel so lonely without you here. I’ve tried everything, but nothing’s helped me.
The only thing that’ll make me feel better is you being home. I’ve known that since the first day you went missing. Nothing and no one could ever take your place in my life Abby. Nobody’s you, no one is going to burst out into random Beatles songs in science with me. No one is going to make fun of the stupid movies we have to watch in class with me. The only person I can do that with is you. That’s what I truly need. I need to know that I have someone who has been there with me through everything. I just need you home.
Honestly Abby, I’ve never had such an amazing best friend as you before and I don’t think anyone could ever be as caring as you. You were always there for me so it’s my turn once again to be there for you too. So if you see this letter, know that you can reach me by my cell. I know you have my number. c:
We all miss you so much.
Hey Abby,
if you’re watching this I miss you. I need you back, there’s nobody else like you. Not only are you probably the funniest person I will probably have the ability of meeting, but you make my day just by us talking. I need you back so we can sit on Facebook until 2 in the morning joking around about the weirdest things about life. I need you back because I miss sitting and playing piano for you over skype when you were bored. I miss when we would hang out at Settler’s Green and you would try to ride my bike. Abby, this summer will really stink if you aren’t here to celebrate the vacation with us up here in North Conway.
Dear Abby, I cannot tell you enough how much you are missed. I know you probably have heard at some point that you are missed, but I don’t think it can be described the missing that goes on. I dream about you coming home often and how it happened, and it’s different every time. All I know is you come home and that’s a happy ending. The worst part about these dreams is waking up thinking you’re really home but you’re not. I wake up at 4 in the morning just assuming you’re safe and home but then I remember you’re not, then I can’t sleep.
You know I’m not very religious, and ironically people would say that it’s a sin. Though since you’ve been gone I have reached the point where I pray. I pray about you directly to god and I hope he hears me and understands. They say that god only gives us what we can handle, but I’m not sure if anyone including you can handle what is going on. Maybe we can’t handle it because we’re not sure what we’re handling.
Do you remember during class in 8th grade drawing that cat thing and all the other silly writings? I wish I still had it, because I would still have your handwriting and a funny memento. I really wish we could go back to that and just forget about the rest of high school. I’d be ok with just forgetting high school. You will be able to start driving in April, and since I hope you’re home by then I plan to hitch rides with you like any normal person (joking of course). I promise when you get home that I’ll take us out for some ice cream if you can drive us I hope you saw my first letter, because it was much better. I miss you like many other people do. Come home soon “gurl”.
Abby, I miss our English table. I miss helping you with vocab. I miss our math group and I miss reminiscing about our past school times. Some days are extremely harder than others. Those days are when you are the only thing on my mind all day…I just want to see you again so badly. I am missing our walks down to lunch from Algebra and our talks about the most random things we can think of right before math class begins. I miss making faces at each other during World Cultures and I still have the pencil that you wrote your name all over during Science and during English the day after.
I can’t stand the feeling I get in my heart every time I walk into our four core classes . I miss your smile and hearing your voice whisper to me from across the English table. I miss the sound of that little noise you make when trying to laugh during class. I miss seeing you in the halls and the mysterious smiles that appear on our faces whenever we make eye contact during class. To be honest, I miss everything Abby. I hold strength in my heart to carry on with hope. I know that you will return home safe very soon and I know that everyone is missing you very much. It’s hard to walk through the halls at the school without passing by you every day. I am so fortunate to have you as a friend. You’re a beautiful girl with a great sense of humor and you can’t believe how much I miss you and want to see you back home safe in this town again. Wherever you are Abby, whatever you are doing , just know that we all love you and miss you so very much. I hope to hear very soon, that you have returned home safe and can’t wait to see you again.
Abby, more than anything else in the world, I want to see you again. Our prayers go unanswered, but we won’t loose faith. I miss you. Sarah misses you. Your friends miss you. What I learned in the last months, made me incredibly proud of you. Abby stay strong. There are hard things in life, but we overcome. We won’t stop looking. Hang in there. Love and hugs. Mom
We wanted Abby to see all of the places where people are sharing her story and are praying for her. Please take a minute to go to our Map and put your location and a message of support for Abby. To access the map, go here.
Note, you can’t add your location from a mobile device, only from a tablet or computer. You can always send us a message to get your location added.
Hi Abby! I just want you to know I’m thinking about you a lot today, like everyday. Your friends really miss and love you. Some of your greatest qualities are your ability to love 100% and your loyalty. We will never lose hope of bringing you safely home!! Dont step on a sleeping bear Love Mom”
I know that this is not abby’s wall, but I really want to write something to her if she ever gets the chance to read the wonderful, good hearted posts on this page.
I really miss you. I miss telling you the silly things about really anything, and calling you “gurl” because we thought it was the silliest thing people said. I really miss texting you in science when I hated the lesson, and making faces to eachother. I miss talking about the real stuff, like about love and having faith. Not only faith in god but faith in life. I knew I wasn’t so alone when I felt one way or another. I miss the one time we threw on the beatles #1 hit album on my record player, and singing to “hey Jude” because you loved it. I remember when we all shared something about our selves during that sleep over for my birthday. I really want to turn 14 again and go back to that so I can revisit that experience at the hockey game and see you again. Now I’m going to turn 15 in two months. I wanted to celebrate it with you. When you come home I want to be able to use the $20,000 to throw you a really cool party. No one has to go, not even me. You can have it all to yourself, or you can not have a big party if you came home. I promise it will be really awesome. Lately I’ve been dreaming. I dreamt there was this big school dance with purple curtains and we were all dancing, then I saw you. Someone told me you were there and I just hugged you and we started dancing. It was really fun.
I wish I could stop crying writing this. But you’re on my mind a lot, I feel guilty you’re not on my mind more. When I hear this song, “runaway train” by soul asylum, I think about you. It’s not about people who are runaways, they’re about all missing kids. It’s about the runaways, the stolen kids, the ones who are in a situation they just can’t get out of. I don’t know where you are or your situation. All I know is I miss you and it really hurts not having you around.
Today marks three months that Abby went missing. Please keep Abby, Zenya and Sarah in your thoughts and prayers. We will never give up hope.
Abby was last seen Oct 9, 2013, leaving Kennett High School on foot. Abby is 5’4, 118lbs,long brown hair and brown eyes. We need everyone to continue sharing, every single day. We need to find Abby and bring her home! Anyone with ANY information, needs to call 1-800-CALL-FBI… RIGHT NOW!! To learn how you can help in our search, click here.
The Conway Daily Sun has a three month recap article today. We thank the Daily Sun and all of the media that continue to cover Abby’s story and are respectful of the family. A huge thank you to everyone for your continued support and positive thoughts. We will never give up hope or stop looking for Abby.
Zenya Hernandez, Abby’s mom, will be interviewed on Good Morning America on Monday December 9th between 7 and 9 AM. We hope you can watch it and we thank Michele McPhee for the time she spent on the interview. We appreciate the tremendous support from GMA as we all work together to bring this wonderful girl back home.
We will make sure to post any video from the interview here on the website and also on the Facebook Page
Thanks to everyone who is being supportive of the Hernandez family and for everyone who is sending out thoughts of hope and love to Abby to help bring her home.
Today there was a press conference in Concord, NH regarding contact Abby has had with her mom via a letter. The complete video of that conference is posted below. They once again have asked for all of our help to get the word out. It may sometimes seem frustrating as we all want to do more and wonder, is there really anything I personally can do to help find Abby?
Unlrelated to this, yesterday, Nelson Mandela died. As we all know, he was a man who faced insurmountable odds in his fight against Apartheid and he made a difference because he never gave up. Seth Godin wrote a blog post about this that I think is appropriate for all of us as we struggle to figure out how we can help find Abby. That blog post is here. I wanted to quote two of the sentences from that post talking about the important lessons we can learn from Nelson Mandela:
“You can make a difference.”
“Your lever is far longer than you imagine it is, if you choose to use it.”
In this case, your lever is the power of social media, of storytelling about Abby, of hanging up posters, talking to your friends, and keeping vigilant in your own community for changes, for unusual behavior. We are the voice, eyes and ears of this search for Abby. Law Enforcement has been very supportive of our efforts and we cannot express our gratitude enough for their efforts. Please continue to help find Abby as we all work together in positive ways to bring this amazing, smart, creative, wonderful girl home. You can make a difference. There are lots of ways you can help, click here for some of the ideas.
People have been extremely generous in their offers of help to get the word out about Abby and all of these efforts are truly appreciated. Here’s a quick list of tips on how you can help spread the word:
Report any tips immediately and confidentially to 1-800-225-5324. If for any reason you are not comfortable reporting them, send them to me and I will report them. Please don’t post them on Facebook first, report them. Don’t assume someone else reported them either. The FBI would rather get a tip twice than not at all Your tip could be the difference in finding Abby.
Print out some posters and put them up in your community. Train stations, bus stations, high traffic areas like malls are a great start. We just updated the posters with the website address and new photos. Click here for poster links.
Share Abby on your website, blog or e-newsletter. If you have some space on the sidebar of your blog or website and you wouldn’t mind giving some space to Abby, this is a great way to get her face out there. Best of all, it’s free!! Click here for pictures to use on blogs.
Purchase a “Missing Abby” magnet and put it on your car or truck. This is especially a good idea if you do a lot of traveling. We are selling them at cost of materials only. Info on purchasing.
Outfit your long haul truck or fleet of trucks with Abby Missing magnets.
We are working with several truck companies who have placed Abby magnets on their long distance trucks. If you are an independent owner-operator or own a fleet of trucks, we would love to work with you too. Contact us on how we can help you do this.
Stay tuned for some more ideas soon. If you have your own thoughts or ideas, Fill out the Contact form. I love hearing from people.
Thank you all in your efforts to help find Abby. Together, remaining positive, communicating, sharing, posting and reporting tips, we will bring her home.
-Paul Kirsch
Abby, we miss you! More than anything else, we wish that you were here with us on this Thanksgiving Day.
Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone! We’ve had a lot of sorrow, but we also have a lot to be thankful for. We are blessed with a wonderful community that came together to support us during our darkest time: family, friends, volunteers, law enforcement, coworkers, neighbors, strangers – you are amazing – all of you! We are thankful to the good people everywhere!
We are staying strong. We know that good always prevails, and we will never ever give up.
Stop in Badger Realty in North Conway and write your message of Hope and Love and Positive Thoughts to Abby and the Hernandez family. The photo and signed frame will be presented to the family.
The featured photo is the winner in this year’s MWV Photo contest and is available as part of the 2014 MWV Photo Contest Calendar. If you buy a calendar and specify the Miranda Leavitt Diabetes Fund as the charity when you purchase one, they are donating part of their proceeds to the Abby’s family. Here is a link for more info on how to buy a calendar:
Wednesday will be six months. Six months since we last saw Abby. We dread it, but hope that maybe we won’t have to face this day. We hope, as we hope every day, that today will be the day when we see Abby.
Hi Abby! I just want you to know I’m thinking about you a lot today, like everyday. Your friends really miss and love you. Some of your greatest qualities are your ability to love 100% and your loyalty. We will never lose hope of bringing you safely home!! Dont step on a sleeping bear Love Mom”
