A mother’s desperate search for her daughter’s lost doll has ended in a happy homecoming for all.
Kayla Campbell of Cornelia took to Facebook late Friday to announce that her daughter’s doll and “best friend” Sofia has been found.
Her 2-year-old daughter Brooklyn threw the doll out the car window on the way to her grandmother’s house in Baldwin on Thursday. Her mom took to social media in a desperate search to find the plush purple-dressed princess.
Now Habersham picked up the story and within just a few hours it had been shared nearly 500 times.
Christie Hughes of Commerce saw an online post and contacted Campbell. She said she and her husband were pretty sure they saw the doll fly out the window while traveling on U.S. 441. They pinpointed the general area and Brooklyn’s dad, Allen, found Sofia along the highway about two miles from the Dairy Queen in Baldwin.
“She’s wet and she’s a little dirty but there she is,” Campbell said revealing the long sought after doll in a livestream on Facebook. When she handed the doll to her daughter, Brooklyn’s first words were, “She’s dirty.” The toddler quickly asked her mom for a towel to clean and dry her best friend.
Campbell says she doesn’t have a clue why Brooklyn threw the doll out the window. “Curiosity, I guess,” she muses. But she knows things weren’t right without her.
Campbell says she bought Sofia at Goodwill for three bucks when she was planning her then- unborn daughter’s Disney princess-themed nursery. The two have been inseparable since Brooklyn first took a shine to Sofia when she was just three months old. “From there on she started sleeping with Brooklyn, eating with Brooklyn, going on trips and to doctor appointments with Brooklyn; everywhere and everything, they were together,” explains Campbell.
Many people kindly offered to replace the lost doll. While Campbell was grateful, she knew there was no replacing the memories. She did accept a friend’s offer of a Sofia look-alike doll. The only problem was, it had a mermaid’s tail. The original Sofia has legs.
That didn’t deter Campbell. She was so intent on comforting her child that she wrote a story from Sofia’s point of view to explain away the difference. In the tale, Sofia tells Brooklyn that when she was thrown from the car she got drenched in the rain and turned into a mermaid.
The sweet story and mermaid doll didn’t go to waste. When the real Sofia was found, the two dolls met. Campbell gave Brooklyn the mermaid and, with both of her plush pals firmly in hand, Brooklyn made the dolls kiss. Then she kissed them. In that instant, the toddler expanded her circle of friendship. Over the course of the preceding 24 hours her mother, too, had expanded hers.
Kayla Campbell met hundreds of people online who were moved by her story. Mothers and fathers, grandparents, too, who understand what it’s like to give it your all when your child is hurting. Brooklyn’s father walked more than six miles up and down roadways searching for his daughter’s doll. In the end, he saved the princess. His wife and the online community that rallied around her, saved the day.
