Day 15: Pregnant and Alone

One of the sweetest women I think I've ever met came to the shelter today. She was from Haiti, and had big, sad eyes. She was three months pregnant. 

Though she was just wearing the grey sweatpants and the simple blue T-shirt that ICE gave her, she was radiant. Over the course of the night, I tried to figure out what it was that made her so striking. I ultimately decided it was her kindness. 

She told me that she and her husband left Haiti over a year ago. They somehow managed to get to Chile, and then traveled up through South and Central America to arrive at the border. She said they'd walked so much—through jungles, cities, and over mountains—that all of her toenails had fallen off. She took off her shoe to wriggle her feet at me. 

The officials at the detention center must have released her because she is visibly pregnant, but her husband is still being held there. You could see the incredible amount of worry in her eyes when she told me this. She asked when he would be let out, what time of day the officials usually drop people off, and how she could contact him. 

I told her we had no idea if or when they would be reunited, but we would do our best to find out. I called the detention center and carefully left his information in a voicemail, even though all I really wanted to do was scream through the phone about how unjust it was to separate them. 

We called her husband's uncle to buy an airplane ticket for her, and after coordinating details of the flight tomorrow, I passed the phone over so the two of them could talk. Her eyes welled up with tears and she had to leave the room. 

It was late after her phone call, so I gave her a fresh set of clothes and told her that I would be here in the morning if she needed anything at all. 

Instead of sleeping, she translated for another Haitian woman who was missing her paperwork and only spoke Creole. She ended up staying awake for hours until we finally found it. 

As I wished her goodnight, she told me that God would bless me for all the help that I gave her. I told her that God would bless her even more for all of her bravery and strength. 

She told me not to worry, that God could bless us both, and we had a good laugh. 


(One of the walls in the warehouse.) 

Comments

  1. outdoor59June 9, 2021 at 9:41 AM

    Another heartbreaking but inspiring story of resilience. I'm glad you came into each other's lives.

    ReplyDelete

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