Calverton couple's prayers answered
Their closest relatives in Haiti all survived earthquake
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For days, Metuschela Alouidor and her husband, Patrick, of Calverton watched scenes of the devastation in their native Haiti, anxiously awaiting phone calls for word of whether relatives were dead or alive.
The first word wasn't good.
Cousins had perished in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck last Tuesday. Despite that bad news, there was joy two days later when Mr. Alouidor found out that a missing brother was alive and well. Two days after that, his wife learned her parents and a brother were alive and safe.
A nurse at Peconic Bay Medical Center, Ms. Alouidor pushed herself to go to work during the ordeal. But she found it hard to hold back the tears.
When their 8-year-old daughter Lori saw her mother crying, she tried to comfort her, Ms. Alouidor said. While Lori can't fully understand what has happened, there is the irony that -- just before the last week's earthquake -- mother and daughter were working on a school project about volcanos and earthquakes. (Lori, who was born in the U.S., has spent several years in Haiti with her parents and grandparents.)
Mr. Alouidor, an aide working with mentally challenged individuals, is about to start studying to become a nurse. He has spent his days feeling compelled to watch CNN but repelled by the awful scenes at places so familiar to him.
Ms. Alouidor's home village of Jacmel, southeast of Port-au-Prince, was devastated, but the pictures on television concentrated primarily on the capital city, Mr. Alouidor said.
"I was praying," Ms. Alouidor said, explaining what sustained her during the long hours of waiting for word of her family members.
"We had to support each other," her husband said.
The first news each got was of the death of cousins. "It tore my heart out," Mr. Alouidor said. At the same time, he acknowledged, "There have been so many miracles."
Ms. Alouidor learned later that when the earth began to shake and her mother begged to leave the house, her father was on his knees praying. Her parents' home was spared while structures on either side collapsed in the quake.
The Alouidors have heard from relatives that multitudes in the quake zone are afraid to re-enter houses that are still standing. Ms. Alouidor's parents, however, feel secure in their house, she said.
Another fear for many, Mr. Alouidor said, are the dangerous inmates who have escaped because the main prison collapsed. Access to a hospital that was not ruined by the quake, the hardest to have hit Haiti in more than 200 years, is blocked by bodies too numerous to be accommodated in the morgue, Mr. Alouidor said.
Both Alouidors said they would like to go to Haiti to be with their families and friends, but their responsibilities here make that unlikely, they said. They are grateful for the outpouring of money and support for Haiti from the American people and the government, Mr. Alouidor said. His respect for President Obama and former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton has grown as he has watched them work together to raise money for the rescue and rebuilding effort.
"I'm more than sure the country will rebuild itself," Mr. Alouidor said. "Haitians are very resilient," he added, noting that, in 2008 alone, the island was hit by four hurricanes that caused serious damage.
"We trust in God," he said. "God has a plan and will open the doors."
jlane@timesreview.com
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