I thought my son died 12 years ago — then a miracle happened

The mother of a missing son had waited 12 long years for her Christmas miracle.

Scottish mom Joyce Curtis thought her son had passed away after he went missing over a decade ago. Curtis hadn’t heard from her boy Nicholas since he disappeared in 2010 and presumed he was dead until Dec. 19, when she received a phone call informing her that her pride and joy was found in a hospital in France.

“I can’t believe it,” Curtis told SWNS of the “miraculous” reunion. “I’d resigned myself to the fact that he had died. I really thought that and I think everybody thought the same.”

She added, “It’s like that film ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ It’s like a miracle.”

The heart-rending saga began in the early 2000s after the native of Glasgow quit his job as a construction worker and embarked on an excursion around Europe. Nicholas told his mother that he’d been hitchhiking and his mom feared that he was roughing it on the mean streets of Paris.

Ultimately, in 2009, Curtis reported her son missing after “not hearing from him in ages and ages” amid his pan-European pilgrimage, the concerned parent said.

Her report appeared to pay dividends, as a year later the British Consulate contacted her to inform her that Nicholas was alive, SWNS reported.

“I got a letter in 2010 to say that Nicholas was in hospital in France,” explained Curtis, who immediately flew to Paris with her husband to visit him.

Little did the Scot know, this was the last time she’d see her progeny for 12 years. “We were getting him home, but for some reason, I don’t know why, he just disappeared again,” lamented the heartbroken mother. “They were sending him home and I was told he was getting put on a flight.

“I was expecting him home at Glasgow at a certain time,” added Curtis, who had even bought him shoes and other travel apparel for his flight home during her visit to Paris.

The eager mother waited at the hospital where she worked at the time, but Nicholas “never got home.”

“I remember it was pouring of rain that day,” described the petrified parent. “I phoned every airport to see if he’d gotten on a flight but nothing.”

The Glaswegian added, “That was the last I heard from him until Monday.”

That day, the British Consulate contacted Curtis a second time to alert her that Nicholas was alive and had been admitted to a French hospital again, a la “Groundhog Day.” However, they didn’t specify the nature of the man’s ailment.

“When I got the call to say he was alive, I just went into shock,” exclaimed the overjoyed mother of hearing the great news. “All I did was cry all day.”

The relieved parent said she was certain that her child had perished with “COVID and everything that has gone on,” adding that she’d even “grieved for him.”

Curtis was overjoyed to be speaking to her son for the first time in 10 years. “I spoke to him on the phone. He looks healthy,” she said. “I asked him, ‘Are you coming home Nikky?’ And he said, ‘Aye.'”

She added, “I can’t imagine what he’s been through. I just need to get him home.”

And while Nicholas is planning to travel home, Curtis says she’s also willing to travel to Paris to see him, presumably to prevent another heartbreaking case of deja vu.

Meanwhile, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have pledged to lend a hand as well. “We are supporting a British man in France and are providing assistance to his family,” said a spokesperson. “We are in contact with the local authorities.”