Earthquake Survivor Speaks of Her Ordeal

Even at 84, the will to live is strong.

As Marcelle St. Jean gasped for air beneath a steel chair and three rooms of rubble in her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12, she prayed to God to save her. "Jesus, Jesus, have pity on me," she cried. "Please save me."

St. Jean related her ordeal through interpreter Christine Etienne in the basement of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church to a crowd of parishioners, neighbors and family members (St. Jean has 27 grandchildren, though not all live in Maplewood).

She told a chilling tale of being in one room of her house and seeing the next room moving toward her. After being buried alive, she heard the "devastating cries" of others' suffering and shouts of "Timama is dead!" (Timama is her nickname) and "Thar-Shine is dead." Thar-Shine is her 11-year-old step-granddaughter who perished in the earthquake. 

For hours, her neighbors worked to dig her out, first creating a hole to breathe, then pouring through murky water to drink and finally sawing through the metal chair that had saved her but that was now imprisoning her.

After being freed, for four days she lay in the street before her son reached her by travelling from the U.S. through the Dominican Republic to Haiti. St. Jean received medical treatment at University Hospital in Newark upon return. She wears a sling, but she is only badly bruised and cut, with no broken bones.

Though heartbroken about her step-granddaughter, St. Jean is grateful to God to be alive and reunited with her Maplewood family.

Others were not as fortunate. The mass program listed the names of these friends and family members who had perished: Msg. Joseph Serge Miot, Henry Jean Baptiste, Chenet Florvil, Michelle Debrosse, Rose Conze, Regina Clerier, George Anglade, Mireille Neptune Anglade, Valerie Fourcand Chevry, Coralie Chevry, Josianne Leger, Marie Andre Pierre, Jean Claude Germain, Huguette Byas, and Clautilde Jean Gilles. St. Joseph's pastor Fr. Michael Saporito also invited members of the congregation to call out the names of others during the mass.

Meanwhile, the parish has raised more than $7,000 in aid to send to Haiti through Catholic Relief Services. Checks can be sent to St. Joseph's at least through January 31.

The memorial and thanksgiving mass which attracted about 200 attendees, was concelebrated by  Fr. Saporito and by Fr. Manolo Punzalan in English with readings and hymns in English, Haitian Creole and French.

After Communion, the choir sang this song of meditation:

J'irai la voir un jour

J'irai m'unir aux anges

Pour chanter ses louanges

Et pour former sa cour

Roughly translated, the hymn says, "I will see the Virgin one day, I will unite with the angels and sing her glory and sit at her court."