Why Haiti matters found in story of Molly
A million people homeless, 300,000 children parentless, crops destroyed, the nation overrun by malaria and other deadly diseases and all major roads and bridges gone.
That was Haiti before the earthquake, from back-to-back-to-back-to-back hurricanes.
So when a 22-year-old named Molly Hightower arrived in Port-au-Prince last summer, the backdrop was already bleak.
Unlike the shiploads of aid now needed to prevent extinction, Ms. Hightower was out to save the world's poorest nation, one orphan at a time.
Chicago-based "Friends of the Orphans" had given her the chance.
And now they are mourning the death of the young University of Portland graduate, who flashed an infectious smile and had peace signs dangling from each ear.
She died during the earthquake, in the collapse of an orphanage school where she had volunteered in a physical therapy program.
The stories Molly told in her Internet blog the past few months reveal the soft spot that many Americans have for Haiti, the planet's perennial underdog.
Here are a few:
"Innocent, one of the oldest residents, is about 28 years old. He immediately grabbed my hand and took me to meet everyone, and would not let me go willingly for the rest of the day. Innocent has cerebral palsy which has at least partially paralyzed one side of his body.
He tries to speak, but is impossible to understand. At first I thought he was just speaking Creole quickly and stuttering, but then was told that no one can understand him.
He kept kissing my cheek, and if he couldn't reach, would kiss my hand over and over until I said "mesi, mesi!" (thank you, thank you.)"
"One of my favorite little buddies was Olsen, who is confined to a wheelchair and blind, but starts to laugh uncontrollably when you sing to him.
Roselene is a 12-year-old girl who stayed by my side the entire day, and asked me a million questions. When others asked the same ones, she would answer for me, and remembered everything right down to my parent's names.
It wasn't until a good hour into sitting next to her that I noticed she was missing a leg under her long skirt. Norma told me that when she was younger, she broke her leg and was not taken to the hospital for however long, and by the time she went her leg was too infected to be saved."
"We went to bless the babies that died in the hospital the night before, which I've never done before. It was devastating to see them be unwrapped, cleaned, blessed and rewrapped to be buried. 2 children died last night, and 3 more the night before so there were several bodies on the tables. The hospital, on average, loses 2 or 3 children a day."
"Of course, there's always sadness to focus on if you choose to. ... But then, Fabien comes in and trips all over herself to run and give you a hug, and Inderra makes eye contact with you from across the room and starts to laugh uncontrollably. You gotta focus on the good."
The final entry was written by her parents.
"Molly is no longer able to add to her blog, her body was recovered from the wreckage of the Fr. Wasson Center in Petion-Ville, Haiti following the January 12th earthquake.
Molly's family is very proud of what she has done in her 22 years on this earth and hope that you will learn from Molly's writings what drove her to leave a life full of family, friends, hot water, clean water, plentiful food and peppermint frappuccinos (sic), to a life of cold showers, bug bites, rice and beans every day, and hot muggy days.
It's very simple, THE CHILDREN. In Haiti she found unconditional love, simple pleasures, smiles all day and a second family. And it made her smile."
• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie.