Waiting for a bus is routine for most of us and takes only a few minutes of our lives. Dot Hughes’ wait, at the Liverpool bus stop, could be measured in years.
Her son, Mark Garvey, went to a bus stop near the Jolly Miller pub and apparently walked off the face of the earth. It was 1987 and he was 15 years old.
Mark told his mother that he was going to a friend’s house and walked out the front door. She later learned that he then got into a fight with his girlfriend and then headed for the bus shelter.
As the buses pull up, Dot tries to see Mark’s face among the disembarking passengers. There is no trace of him. She is convinced she would recognize her son, even though he is now 44. “I wish I could see him again, on the street,” she explains. Dot and her family often try to avoid the bus stop, as the memory is too painful. But behind it all, a burning need to see her son keeps her going. The need to see it before another decades pass. “If only I could find it before I died,” she says.
If you have seen Mark Garvey, have more information on his whereabouts or would like to send a message home to the searching relatives, you can call the missing persons helpline on 116 000. The conversation is free and confidential.
Police worked the case for three months, interviewing everyone at Mark De La Salle’s school in Croxteth, searching Walton Park with sniffer dogs and making an announcement over the loudspeakers in Goodison – but there was no There was no sign of Mark and no one provided any information. .
The family lived in Walton at the time and Rose said her father was not the same after her son’s disappearance.
Rose said: “I remember when I was 15 and if I told my dad I’d be home at 10 p.m. and I’d be there at 5 a.m., he’d be right there at the door for me. expect.
“Even as an adult, he was still calling and checking to see if I was getting home safely.
“Whenever it was Mark’s birthday or the anniversary of his disappearance, my dad always looked lost – I never knew what to say to him, I just hugged him. “He didn’t want to show how he felt, he was a strong man and how he lived not knowing where his son was I don’t know but it killed him.”
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