When a Mother Waits

There are some stories you scroll past.

And then there are stories that refuse to let you keep scrolling.

Tonight, I found myself thinking about Nolan Wells.

An 18-year-old who left home with friends and never came back.

I don’t know every detail of what happened, and I won’t pretend that I do. There is an ongoing investigation, and his family deserves the truth—whatever that truth may ultimately be.

But what I do know is this:

A mother is grieving.

A family is waiting for answers.

And a young man’s future ended far too soon.

As I sat in bed tonight watching television, I couldn’t stop thinking about how fragile life really is.

How does someone leave home expecting to make memories and instead become the center of a search?

How does an ordinary day become the day that changes a family forever?

Those are the questions that stayed with me.

As a Dominican American woman, I also know that conversations about race can be uncomfortable. Many of us carry different experiences, different fears, and different perspectives. My own family includes people with darker skin, including my nephews, and stories like this naturally make me think about them.

Not because I know what happened in this case.

But because every family wants the same thing.

For the people they love to come home safely.

No parent should have to wonder where their child is.

No family should have to wait endlessly for answers.

No young person should have their story end before it has truly begun.

Tonight reminded me that justice is not about assumptions.

Justice is about truth.

It is about allowing every family the dignity of a complete, honest investigation.

It is about believing that every human life has equal value.

As I continue my own journey of healing, I’ve realized something.

Healing doesn’t make your heart harder.

It makes your heart more aware.

You begin carrying not only your own pain, but the pain you recognize in others.

You pray for people you’ve never met.

You grieve alongside strangers.

You hope that somewhere, somehow, truth finds its way into the light.

Tonight, my heart is with Nolan Wells’ family.

I hope they receive the answers they deserve.

And I hope every family, regardless of who they are or where they come from, gets to experience the one thing we all wish for at the end of the day:

That the people we love make it home.

— Erika Mabel Santana
The Becoming of Ms. Butterfly