The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 22

2C The Daily Sentinel Sunday, September 21. 1997 HOMECOMING: Pearson family getting reacquainted after daughters abduction, nearly 3-year absence fatiuedtompaplC The man, it turned out was just delivering a message for Joanne to call 3rd District Congressman Scott Mclnnis, who had been working the diplomatic channels to help Joanne and Charlie get out of Mexico with Emilie and in what turned out to be an unsuccessful effort to keep Hardy jailed. I told the man I'd call him after we got in the air. There was no way I was getting off that plane, Joanne said. They landed in Los Angeles and breezed through customs.

After all, their papers were in order and Emilie looks an awful lot like her mom. They just prayed that Emilie wouldnt suddenly start speaking her perfect Spanish and prompt questions. Then she called home. I just lo6t it, she said. I was crying.

I said, Were on American people for 31 months and now I can't even she remembered with a laugh. They grabbed some of Emilies tilings and headed to thq Guadalajara police department to drop kidnapping charges against the housekeeper and the young men. That was one of the requirements before they could leave the country with Emllie. TTiough Joanne had their Spanish-language papers all in order, it still took king enough at the police station that they missed their flight Another flight to Los Angeles was quickly booked. They got on the plane.

"I had completely shut oft" Joanne said. No emotion, no fear except when this guy came on the plane and said, Ts Joanne Pearson on this plane?" When she draws pictures of herself, Emilie colors her skin brown. She proudly proclaims herself Mexican, not American. Extremely articulate in Spanish, she's gradually working English into her vocabulary. Shes trying.

It's like going from a 10-year-old talking to talking like a three-year-old and she doesnt like that, Joanne explains. Emilie had been reluctant to leave her Guadalajara home with Joanne and Charlie. Unable to afford any airport scenes from the girl, they told her she was just going on a trip, a little visit One night about a week after they had returned to Grand Junction, Joanne was putting Emilie to bed. They had finished reading a bedtime book written in English and Spanish. She said she had agreed to come for three days and had already been here for seven.

She was ready to go back, Joanne said. Joanne explained to Emilie that she was in her home now. There was no going back. They went to the chair where Joanne had rocked an infant Emilie. Joanne stroked the childs head the way she always had.

She sang her own version of Amazing Grace to the child, words she made up before Emilie was stolen from her. Now the words seem to have meaning. "Its grace that brings you home to me It's grace that sets us free They cried together until sleep Answer to Sunday Crossword Puzzle No.805 published today. It was there, in 1988, that she met ReJean Hardy while they were both working in the same retail plaza. He was charming, a charming con man, she said, shaking her head.

The attractive and sophisticated French-Canadian man seemed like the perfect answer for Joanne, who was then scraping by financially and living in another womans grubby apartment He was charming and he needed something. He needed his green card, she scoffed, wondering aloud at how she could have been so foolish. After knowing each other just a few months, they married. They moved around a lot in California, in Colorado, in Arizona. He had seven W-2s the last year we were married," Joanne said.

They were in Arizona when Joanne found out she was pregnant Hardy told her he wanted a divorce. Five weeks after Emilie was born. Hardy loaded up a U-HauL drove to Grand Junction, parked the trailer in front of Joanne's mothers house and left Joanne and Emilie. He didnt come visit He didnt pay child support and, as soon as the divorce was final, he married a Phoenix woman. Emilie was four months old when Joanne met Charlie.

Charlie, I think, was more attracted to me because of Emilie, Joanne said. The first thing he said was, Thats the most beautiful little girL On Sept 18, 1993, Charlie and Joanne married and Charlie became Emilies stepdad. Joanne had gone to court to get the child support order for Hardy enforced. The court found Hardy in contempt and his second wife wrote tiie checks, Joanne said. That's when the visitations began.

After Hardy and Emilie disappeared three weeks after Emilies third birthday Joanne devoted her life to finding her daughter. She became so well-versed on the issue of soil! Joanne had tried to prepare herself for the day when she and Emilie would be reunited. She read all she could about the effects of abduction and brainwashing on children. She talked with others who had gotten their children back. She hadn't anticipated that her daughter would return but no longer speak English.

Its still very difficult Hie crudest thing he could have done was to make sure she couldn't communicate. Its one more control thing," Joanne said. Emilie keeps a small computerized translator nearby. When she and Joanne get bogged down, Joanne writes the troublesome word on paper and the girl types it into the translator. Joanne keeps an EnglishSpanish dictionary handy.

But the mother and daughter have a visible bond that helps them understand each other, even when words fail them. Trying to find the delicate balance between protecting her emotionally fragile child and yet imposing thb discipline and boundaries so clearly missing from the girls life for 31 months is an awesome challenge for Joanne. She and Emilie both see a therapist trained in dealing with child-abuse issues, for the kidnapping of child is clearly abuse, Joanne said. Shes looking for a good English as a Second Language program in which to enroll Emilie, but she also struggling with when the five-year-old, who was in second grade in Mexico, should start school here. Im shooting blind, she said.

These arent regular mother problems. Emilie insists that her birthday is July 8, 1991, instead of Jan. 8, 1992. Shell tell you she was bom in Spain and that shes now six years old, not five. parental kidnappings that she was a keynote speaker last winter at a convention hosted by the Missing Childrens Society of Canada.

Mclnnis invited her to testify before a Congressional subcommittee as worked, so for unsuccessfully, to introduce and pass legislation that would stiffen the penalties for parental kidnapping. It seemed to Joanne initially that law enforcement wasn't acting quickly or decisively enough in trying to find her child. She bristled publicly at what then seemed to her to be insufficient efforts on the part of the Grand Junction Police Department in general and Detective Kevin Imbriaco in particular. But, as time went on, Imbriaco stuck by her, as did Grand Junction FBI Special Agent Ron Baker. Together and separately, they looked for Emilie.

Kevin. I Just love that guy. All the fighting we did in the beginning I told him it feels like a rocky marriage, she said. Trips were made to Canada, where Hardys parents lived. Private investigators were hired.

Flyers with pictures of Emilie and Hardy wept out all over the world. Emilies story aired on a national unsolved-crimes television show. Emilies picture appeared on pre-paid long distance phone cards, a kind of 90s version of pictures of missing children on milk cartons. Hopes were raised and dashed as reported sightings turned into dead-ends. As the second anniversary of Emilies abduction came and went, Joanne kept her faith.

In mantra-like fashion, she told anyone who would listen that she would find her baby. With support from Charlie, her family and many others, she kept looking. Charlie. Charlie is amazing, Joanne said, love radiating from her eyes. He stood beside her, sometimes suffering the frustration of watching the pain of the one you love and having no way to make the hurt go away.

Answer to Sept. 21 Cryptoquip: IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE FOR BALLPLAYERS WITH ARMS TO BE IN THE THROWS OF AGONY. Introducing Nautica for Girls I Joanne, her five sisters and two brothers were raised in Grand Junction. As Joanne Potratz, she graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1979. She went to college in Denver.

After finishing work on her masters degree and living for a time in New York City, she moved to California. Monday ttvougn Saturday Things have gotten easier since Sept 5, when the family first returned to Grand Junction. Every day, life with Joanne and Charlie becomes more routine and predictable for Emilie, who so much needs to be able to trust that todays family and home will still be family and home tomorrow. Emilie doesnt wake up so agitated every morning. Shes learning to say, Please and Thank you, rather than issuing orders and demands as.

she did in her Guadalajara home. Joanne now devotes her time to Emilie. The time may come when she returns to the mission she set for herself while Emilie was gone, that of educating others about parental abductions. For now, she has her own work to do. Right now my agenda is so much more sublime.

God, can I just communicate with my daughter? Can I love her into healing? Public Meetings Mesa County Commbsloners, 9 a m. Monday (administrative) and Tuesday (land use), public hearing mom, 750 Main SL Information: 244-1601 City of FhdtaCKy Cound, 7 p.m. Mdnday, City Hall, 101 W. McCune. Information: 858-3663.

PaftsadeTown Cound, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Palisade Council Chambers, 175 Second Si Information: 464-5602. Chamber of Commerce Leads Group, noon Tuesday, Chamber of Commerce, 360 Grand Ave. Information: 242-3214. Mesa County Chfld Protection Team, 7 a.m.

Wednesday, Mesa County Department of Social Services, 2952 North Ave. Information: 241-8480. Grand junction Commission on Arts aid Culture, 4 p.m. Wednesday, parte office building Lincoln Park, 1340 Gunnison Ave. Information: 244-3865.

Charter of Commerce Leads Group, 7:30 a.m Thursday and Friday, Chamber of Commerce, 360 Grand Ave. Information: 242-3214. Newspaper Subscription Questions? Call 2421919 Outside Mesa County Call 1-800-332-5833 ft i I ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft I I I I i nautica Catch the style that inspires smiles! Girls' 7-16 sportswear by Nautica. Reg. $19 to $62.

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