Last Sunday I was sitting in my living room massaging Makensia’s legs as she has tremendously swollen legs and feet from carrying those twins. She told me in passing that her friend ( someone I know) had had her baby and her belly was hurting a lot. I asked her more details. The baby was a day old and had been born in the familie’s 8 by 8 foot block house. I aske Makensia if she had seen a doctor or if anyone had helped with the birth. She said no. I asked Makensia if she thought I should go check on her. Makensia said yes. So I walked down to Clerville in the middle of the night in the rain and found a precious new mother and her 14 hour old infant snuggling close by, already nursing. I asked her a few medical questions and both seemed to be doing well, not wanting to intrude, I said good night and went home.
Many of you know, I went for quick trip to Miami to send some boxes and buy some beads. I just returned home yesterday, and today I went out to check on some of my peeps and investigate the cholera situation. I stopped by the new mom’s house and asked outside if she and the baby were there to a neighbor. The neighbor nonchalantly replied, oh, the baby is dead.
WHAT??#@%
Come again? The baby is dead? What? How? When? Why didn’t you come and get me?
Their reply was simple… “You were in the states”.
They tried to go to the hospital when they realized it was dying, but hospitals here for the most part don’t care. Doctors are numb. Another dead baby is just par for the job.
This was her second dead baby.
I cried with her for a minute or two as she lay there in the hot dark tears streaming down her face. There was nothing else I could do for her. There was no one buying flowers, sending cards…
How do you say goodbye, see ya later in a situation like that? I told her to call me if she needed anything.
I walked home stunned. I went upstairs and told Corrigan. My ramblings went something like this…. “Stink! Had I been here, she may have come and gotten me when her baby was sick, had I gone with her to the hosptial, she would have gotten the attention that she needed…A big white face like mine stands out in the crowd here! Why didn’t she ask for help sooner? Can’t we just reverse time? Argghhhhh- hearwrenching groans”
Corrigan said it best when he replied…. “Yes, it’s like we are advocates with power” When we stand by and draw attention to those in need, we have power to bring change. We don’t do much, we just draw attention.
So here I am again, writing another sob story with the hopes that it will draw some attention, spark some interest in helping, tug on some heart string that imight have the power and the resources to make a small change and another and then another in Haiti. But in the mean time, say a prayer for this empty armed mother whose two children are snuggled up close in the arms of the Father.