No nothing IS as sad and heart breaking as that I agree, all the more reason why I think the McCann's shouldn't be getting the abuse they get for a decision they can't make right. You feel it sad and heart breaking so do we all, but it is MUCH worse for the parents of the child isn't it, it is what they have to live with every day.
I am coming to the conclusion that irrespective of the circumstance of Madeleine's disappearance it really doesn't have a great deal to do with the circumstances of the vitriolic campaigns against her parents.
Almost nine years is an awesome amount of time to have expended on hating people you don't know, have never met and whose only 'crime' is that they dined out in a restaurant less than two minutes away from where they had left their children sleeping.
I am coming round to thinking that isn't actually what gets up these people's noses. I think the accusations and allegations of neglect are ...
(a) all they can find to accuse them of while excusing an abductor
(b) a convenient nail on which to hang their coat of irrational spite which has another cause entirely
The only thing I can think of which this couple have done is directing their energy and drive in generating a campaign which has made their missing daughter's name unforgettable.
It is only due to their endeavour and hard work that Madeleine's case has been reopened and after almost nine years there is a chance to recover her or find out what happened to her.
At the least, comfort can be taken that all that can be done is being done which was not quite the case initially. A sad fact recognised by the Portuguese authorities themselves.
The 'unpopularity' generated by a petty minded vociferous few in their objection to a small award being given to two women in recognition of the work they have done and continue to do on behalf of others ... is something which has come to be expected.
The problem lies not with these bereaved mothers ... but with those who glad hand each other with spiteful comments with which those of us who tread the McCann boards have become tiresomely familiar, but not really the normal folks out there they hope to 'educate'. Sadly they gain satisfaction that a comments section in a tabloid printed their bilious spite ... if that is the epitome of what they think is success ... sad, sad people indeed.