By William’s Mummy & Daddy

Hope is a funny thing. What do we hope for? We’re not too sure how to answer a question about ‘how we maintain hope for William’ exactly. We hope he’s safe, we hope he’s loved, we hope he’s not afraid. We hope we get an answer soon. We hope he comes home soon. We hope that we never have to face the fact that we may never know what happened to our beautiful little boy. We hope that someone will tell someone what they know.

As a family we survive by being present minute-to-minute. The minutes roll into days, days into weeks all from the moment our boy disappeared. Hope is all we have. To imagine a life without William is absolutely horrific and it’s something we just can’t do. We believe the Police are doing everything they can possibly do to bring him home.

By trying to think positively and that by not having an outcome as yet, we believe that there is still the chance of William coming home alive. We also believe the public can help in immeasurable ways. What we’re asking of people is; if you’ve noticed that something is odd, or that something just strikes a chord with you about what you might have seen or heard then you have to contact Crime Stoppers. It might be something that until now you’ve dismissed as unimportant but by telling police, it just may be the one thing, the one missing piece of the puzzle they are looking for and you just may be the one who helps to bring William home to us. We hope that the “one thing”, the one piece of information police are looking for will come through very soon because to live a life without our little boy is indescribable.

It’s the love and support of extended family and friends that keeps us going day-after-day. For our little family, we keep each other strong and remain focussed on caring for each other and what our family means to us. Keeping our family connected and emotionally safe, our roles with each other change as does our grief and sense of loss but for us it’s about being honest and open with each other with our feelings and thoughts.

We have a very strong support system around us with friends, counselling professionals and other family members all focussed on how we can keep each other moving forward and in helping each other with coming to terms with William’s abduction.

As a family, there are times when it’s just so overwhelming… One of the most confronting feelings we have sometimes is the feeling that life goes on without William at home… Life as we knew it stopped on the morning of the 12th September 2014 but around us the world was “ticking by”, the sun still came up each morning and the stars still shone each night…

It can be so overwhelming at times and this is when we rely on each other for strength. What’s also particularly cruel and hurtful is when people who don’t know us demonstrate an enormous lack of compassion and empathy for our situation and say the most hurtful and insensitive things on social media, this is when the strength and love of friends and family helps keeps us “normal”. We both support each other by keeping busy with the Where’s William Campaign to raise awareness of our boy and donations to keep his disappearance front of mind across the community.

William is a funny little boy with an amazing sense of humour. He can laugh at himself and is most happy being the centre of attention at home. He and his sister absolutely adore each other. We have pictures of them giving each other kisses, hugs and playing. One of the things that William was beginning to explore was dress ups and creating characters for us. He and his sister would put on concerts for us, they would play their guitars and pianos, sing their favourite songs which was Frozen at the time. William and his sister are everything to us and our family.

William and his sister are the ‘bestest little buddies’ and the centre of our entire universe.

It’s incredibly hard thinking about our plans and dreams for the future now. When we think of the plans we might make, often we question ourselves because we want so much to include William. How can we plan for our family’s future without him and yet, do we try to make plans as if he’s not with us?

We have almost completed our renovations on our home for our little family. We had planned those a while ago and we planned for it to become our “forever family home”. It’s heartbreaking that William has missed out on all the fun things that he would have been so excited to be a part of – the diggers, the saws cutting timber for the roof, the trucks and all the trades working on our family home. He wold have been so, so very excited especially knowing he wold be getting his new room upstairs with lots more room for all his toys! Having missed out on the fun of building, we hope that when William comes home to us he loves how we’ve made his room his own special magic place.

To the public we want to say a special thank you from the bottom of our hearts. So many of you have offered your heartfelt words of support, love and carrying for William you’re your continued support and endorsement in helping in our Where’s William? Campaign brings us incredible comfort. We have seen your words and felt your acts of kindness.

And yet, we are troubled and disturbed by the heartbreaking position we find ourselves in and feel a deep sense of helplessness at not knowing what has happened to our boy.

To the public, our message is simple; somebody knows something, somebody saw something or somebody heard something that can help police find our boy. Somebody may have even heard someone say something about William’s disappearance. All it will take to find him is for that somebody, that one person to come forward to make all the difference and help bring William home. Maybe that somebody is you?

Please visit whereswilliam.org to learn more about William and make a donation and share William’s official Facebook page: ‘Where’s William Tyrrell? Bring Him Home – Official’ Facebook page.

If you have seen William or have information relating to his disappearance, please contact Crime Stoppers now on 1800 333 000 or at Crime Stoppers online reporting page. You can remain anonymous.