The Story of Mary Jean

Mary Jean was struggling. The earthquake 18 months ago had claimed her mother and father and her house. The subsequent cholera outbreak swept through her small village in eastern Haiti like a deadly flood. First her youngest child developed the fever then the diarrhea, finally the painful dehydration was too much for her and she joined the tens of thousands who had succumbed to the dreadful disease. Then she was pregnant, again. She delivered a healthy baby girl and for a moment she felt the warming joy that only that event can bring but without food or shelter for her other six children, she new that this baby hadn't a chance. She had heard of an orphanage in an adjacent town and there she went to see if they could care for her newborn. She knocked on the tired door hoping beyond hope that they would take her baby but as they were full, they turned her away to the darkening street. Disheartened, she continued to the next orphanage and the next and the next. She was told that there were 380,000 orphans in Haiti and only 100 licensed orphanages and all were brimming with hungry children brought by hopeless parents like herself.

As she trudged down the dark, dusty street, her baby crying for the few drops of milk left in her parched breasts, her head ached from the dehydration and the impending decision she was left to make. She was living every mother's worst nightmare. She couldn't bear to see her baby slowly starve but she was out of options so she picked up a large enough stone to make the deed quick and ended the misery.