12 March 3, 2012 - ObserverXtra

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012
Two years after their mother Yvonne was killed in the
devastating Haitian earthquake, Terry and Luke Martin
travelled to the impoverished Caribbean nation to
understand what brought her there
JAMES JACKSON people was born.
“We were all a little surprised
Some nightS Luke
and Terry Martin still
dream about their mother.
They dream that the retired
nurse and grandmother
of 10 is alive and
well in Haiti, continuing
the work that she loved –
helping those who needed
it the most and offering
them a kind smile and
gentle hands of comfort.
Those ghost-like dreams always
end the same way for the
two brothers, however: waking up
to the reality that their mother,
Yvonne, is gone and is never
coming back.
In January, two years to the
day of her death, Luke and Terry
finally visited the spot where
their mother's body was found
following the Haitian earthquake.
They went to understand why
she returned to the impoverished
nation time and time again, and
where her love for the Haitian
when she said she was going to
Haiti for the first time, but once
she came back it all made sense,”
said Terry, whose mother first
travelled to Haiti in 2007.
“It wasn’t her entire life, but
over those four years it was an
important part of who she was.”
On Jan. 12, 2010 the small
Caribbean nation was struck by
the island’s worst earthquake in
more than 200 years. The epicentre
was about 15 kilometres
southwest of the capital city of
Port-au-Prince along the fault
line that divides the Caribbean
and North American tectonic
plates – enormous slabs of rock
that fit together like a giant jigsaw
puzzle over the entire surface
of the Earth.
Yvonne, an Elmira resident,
had landed in Haiti earlier that
day as part of a church mission
group. It was her fourth time in
the country, but at 4:53 p.m. local
time the earth trembled beneath
her feet and the guesthouse
where she and the other missionaries
were staying collapsed on
top of her.
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake
struck just 90 minutes after the
Crosses like this one cover the mass graves throughout Haiti. Written in Creole, this one has the date of the
earthquake and says, “Let us remember those that go before us on the journey of life.” [terry martin]
seven women from Waterloo Region
had landed in the capital.
Three of those team members
– Marilyn McIlroy, Deb Paton and
Lois McLaughlin – were standing
on the third-floor balcony of the
Wall’s International Guesthouse
when the earthquake struck,
while three others – Marilyn
Raymer, Alice Soeder and Laura
Steckley – were tossed back and
forth in their deck chairs as water
slopped out of the pool and
soaked their legs.
Unsure of what was happening
around them, but realizing that
they were in danger, the women
moved away from the building
and met outside, only to find
that the seventh member of their
team was not with them.
It was then that they realized
that Yvonne, who had gone inside
to get changed just moments
earlier, was buried in the rubble.
Terry got a phone call later that
night while he and his wife Melanie
were about to head out to a
basketball game. It was Melanie’s
mother on the phone asking if
they had heard about the earthquake.
FEATURE | 19
Luke and Terry Martin observe
a moment of prayer with
Marilyn McIlroy at the site
of the destroyed guesthouse
in Port-au-Prince where
their mother died.
[submitted by terry martin]
“At the time we hadn’t, but we
didn’t think too much about it,”
said Terry. “We went to the basketball
game and then I got a call
from my dad, and he had a brief
message saying, basically, that
mom was missing.”
Across the continent in San Diego,
Terry’s brother Luke was at
work when the first scattered reports
of the quake began filtering
out of Haiti. California was three
hours behind Haiti, and at first
Luke was relieved, thinking that
his mother hadn’t yet arrived.
“I was aware that she was travelling
but I wasn’t keeping in
mind the time change, so as soon
as I heard that the earthquake
had hit I thought ‘thank goodness,
she hasn’t arrived yet.’”
About an hour later Luke’s father,
Ron, called to tell him that
he had received a text message
from Raymer saying that Yvonne
was missing.
After getting the news, Terry
and Luke started scouring the Internet
for flights to Haiti so that
they could go search for her.
Information coming out of the
disaster zone was sparse at best,
as local television and radio sta-
HAITI | 20