[photo, left, is of Gabriel Blanc]]
By Frank Shea(Frank Shea is a former journalism student of BrooklynRon's and now works with Brooklyn Assemblyman Nick Perry)
With so many stories of death and despair coming out of Haiti, I wanted to share a tale of a man’s love for his family, and his determination to survive and care for his family.
In Haiti to visit his girlfriend and 9-year-old daughter who live in Port Au Prince, Gabriel Blanc had taken a daytrip to Leogane. Leogane, over 25 miles outside of Port Au Prince, experienced some of the most violent shaking on the entire island. Gabriel was having coffee when disaster struck. He retreated outside only to see the ground open up in front of him. All in one piece, but unaware of his girlfriend and daughter’s fate in Port Au Prince; he decided he needed to get back to the capital to check on them, so he began to walk back in the 90-plus degree heat.
Amazingly, with the odds stacked against him, somehow he made it back through the wreckage and located his loved ones amidst the chaos on the streets of Port Au Prince.
This story may not seem so different from many other tales of heroism told after any tragedy, so let me explain. Gabriel is a frail 67-year-old Diabetic, with high blood pressure, heart disease, a lung disease called sarcoidosis, and a newly installed pacemaker.
He had many other loved ones back home in Brooklyn. His daughter, son and friends held vigil, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. Sleepless nights would follow, and as images of the lifeless bodies of young healthy men and women were shown on TV being pulled from the rubble, his return back home to Brooklyn grew slim. Until Friday morning, when a call from a stranger came to his daughter’s cell phone, the only number Gabriel ever can remember. The man said he was in Boston, and was just speaking to a friend of his on the streets of Port Au Prince, when a frail old man with diabetes and other ailments asked him to phone his daughter in Brooklyn and let him know he was okay.
About 30 minutes after that serendipitous call from Boston, Gabriel found his way to a phone, called home, and said the worst part of the ordeal was knowing that his loved ones in Brooklyn were probably thinking he was dead. In his typical fashion, he said he would be fine, then quickly continued to ask how everyone in Brooklyn was doing. He said he was going to find a car to take his girlfriend and daughter to the countryside, as he said there was nothing for them in Port Au Prince. He ended the call by telling his daughter, “I’ll survive, but my country is over.”
So the next time I hear a woman say, they can never find a good man, I’ll tell him don’t worry, a good man will find them, and then introduce them to my father-in-law, Gabriel Blanc, a very good man.
very toching great writing frank!
Posted by: Caite | January 31, 2010 at 10:55 AM
Well written little brother...
Posted by: Eileen marotte | January 18, 2010 at 09:02 PM