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he had pulled my wife and son from the rubble and that they had nothing, nota scratch, on them. When he tried to reassure me, I jumped on him to stranglehim. Luckily he understood that I was not in a normal state and fled. It took meabout an hour to find my wife and son, kiss them, hold them tight against meand thank God for this miracle that I did not deserve any more than those whodied or lost their loved ones.Approximately one week before the earthquake, I had awakened in thenight and switched on my television. My wife had joined me. A documentaryshowed how to behave in case of an earthquake, and when the first tremorswere felt, my wife remembered this. She took refuge with my son under a large,solid wooden table in the dining room. The house collapsed, but the table wasable to resist.I am one of the few survivors in this drama who has lost neither hisimmediate family nor extended family. But I lost friends of long standing,people who were dear to me, with whom I shared so much and with whom I hadso many things in common. I am not cured yet, and perhaps I will not heal. Butthe earthquake has completely changed my life: This tragedy has brought mecloser to God.Today, my family and I have moved to Brooklyn with the goal ofrebuilding our lives.Persevering143reginald louis-JACQUESRéginald Louis-Jacques, age 37, has lived in New York for 10 months. “I’mmarried to Regine Coppee, and we have a son, Mathys Reginald. Back in HaitiI was an electronic and network computer engineer.” Betsy Kissam is hisESOL teacher at the College of Mount St. Vincent’s Institute for ImmigrantConcerns, where Donna Kelsh is the director and Mark Brik is the educationdirector. Réginald Louis-Jacques aims “to go to school to get a Master’s degreein telecommunications.”