A girl got lost in Zhanjiang, in China’s Guangdong province, and she couldn’t remember any of her family’s phone numbers. She had no photos, no data. She only had her hands and a pencil.
So she did the only thing she could think of: she drew her mom. A circle for a face, two little lines for eyes, a huge smile, and a hairstyle that looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale. She handed it to the officers who found her and explained to them, very seriously, that this was the person they were looking for.
The police didn’t have much to go on, but the drawing ended up being the clue they needed. They asked around the neighborhood and questioned the neighbors, and against all odds, someone recognized the little girl’s mother. Minutes later, mother and daughter were hugging again, and that crumpled sheet of paper remained as the tenderest reminder of a day that could have ended very differently.