A Year Ago

I continue to be in "a year ago today" mode. This morning I remembered coming home after that first night, which we spent sleeping outside, on the soccer field at school. I came home to find eleven people in my yard. (Here's what I wrote about this last January.) They wouldn't come inside, and they slept out there for weeks. Most of them were relatives of an employee, but one was someone from their neighborhood. He left that morning to walk to Jacmel, to see how his family was. I've since learned that he found everyone alive and safe.

Everyone is remembering what was happening a year ago. Those first days after the earthquake were terrifying. We wondered if buildings that looked safe perhaps actually weren't. We worried about an aftershock big enough to cause more severe damage. We continued to hear about people who had died or been injured. We told our stories, again and again, and couldn't believe what we were hearing ourselves say. Was this real?

We spent some time with a friend today. A year ago tomorrow, we learned that his wife had died when the building where they lived collapsed. He told us about his experience yesterday, and how he focused on the words that the angel spoke in the resurrection story in the gospels: "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" He knew his wife was not there, in her grave, but rejoicing in Heaven on the anniversary of the earthquake. That helped him get through the day.

I know that for a few days, at least until the anniversary of the day I left Haiti for the US, I will be thinking about what happened a year ago. A year ago, I was so frightened. But a year ago, God was with me.