Haitian Disaster

In 2010, a devastating earthquake hit the island nation of Haiti, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and countless more injured and homeless. Amidst the rubble and chaos, a young couple named Jean and Marie struggled to survive.

I met them as I do of so many interesting people, in a cafe. Jean had a flare in his eyes that glinted when I offered too buy him coffee - a look that only people who had been through the highs and lows could have.

We sat ourselves down and he began to talk. Jean was a construction worker and had been working on a residential building when the earthquake struck. Buried under the rubble for hours, he had his leg pinned beneath a fallen beam. When he was finally rescued, he was badly injured and barely conscious. Marie, his wife who was pregnant at the time, had been at home when the earthquake hit. She was thrown to the ground by the force of the quake and was concussed on the head by an artifact in her house.

The Stone Statue, Salvaged.

Over the coming weeks and months, Jean and Marie struggled to rebuild their lives in the wake of the disaster – they had lost everything they owned and had no family to turn to for help. But they had each other. They clung to the hope that they could start over and build a new life together.

Jean in 2023

It was during this time that Marie began to experience strange symptoms.

“She said she felt dizzy and nauseous and had a persistent headache that wouldn't go away. I thought it was just stress and fatigue from the trauma of the earthquake, but as the weeks passed, she grew worse.”

“It was a brain tumor, and it was growing quickly. The doctor told me that without surgery, she would die within a few months.”

He did everything he could to raise money for the surgery, selling everything he owned and begging for help from anyone. Marie underwent the operation, and it was successful. She was weak and in pain, but she was alive. Over the coming weeks, Jean cared for Marie tirelessly - he was her caretaker. But despite his efforts, Marie began to slip away. She was distant and unresponsive, her eyes empty and lifeless. It wasn't until several weeks after the surgery that Jean learned the truth. The hospital where Marie had undergone the surgery had been using counterfeit drugs and caused irreversible damage to her brain, leaving her in a vegetative state.

Jean was devastated. He spent his days and nights by her side, talking to her and trying to reach her in any way he could. But Marie was gone. In the years that followed, Jean continued to care for Marie. He never gave up hope that one day, somehow, she would wake up and be with him again.

But it never happened. Marie remained in a coma, for more than a decade after the earthquake.

“I want to be by her side until the end.”

Jean still holds onto the hope that one day she would wake up and be with him again. He held this quote to his heart: “Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements, even when it leads nowhere? I will build myself up and parachute to the end.”

I asked him of his internal drive.

“I know that she’s probably never going to talk again. But I, for one, know what it means to a family when things like these happen. I have passion and love for the organization that I cofounded in Shanghai, called Rest & Care - Marie is still on medical service because of the wonderful people that runs this NGO. Been in Shanghai for 8 Years, still can’t get enough of the countless opportunities I receive from companies, the government, and locals.”

His grey eyes sparkled with passion that I understood - Marie carried him on through her medical bed and pushed him to be the man he wanted to be.

Disclaimer:

• The interviewee did not want to disclose her and her husband’s real names due to certain religious calling.