R.I.P Ti Rose

I just had to do the most difficult thing in my life, tell my cousin that her sister passed away over the phone. When I heard the news that a boat capsized 14 miles away from Nassau, Bahamas this morning, never in a million years did I stop to think that anyone in my family could be on that boat. I didn't even know she was trying to come to the US, she recently immigrated to the Bahamas, she was enjoying life there was the last thing I'd heard.

First my sister IM's me saying call Haiti of course I'm assuming something was wrong with my mother, everyone else was doing okay last I'd heard so she (my mother) was the only person I had to worry about. So, when my sister said we needed to call my cousin who lives in North Carolina next I was totally lost. They barely speak? Then another IM followed stating that her sister had passed away. I thought of course I'm reading this wrong...but how can you read passed away wrong? I called her and she confirmed and I'm thinking, "why? Why do I have to tell her?" Over the phone at that, I can't hold her hand or wipe her tears or explain to her children why their mom is crying.

We got through it my sister stayed on the phone with me in case I couldn't go through with it. Hearing her breakdown like that and the sound of her son's voice in the background asking "what's wrong?" has to be the equivalent of the pain one feels when being shot straight through the heart. I haven't seen Roselene (Ti Rose) since I was 11 years old and I feel like I've been robbed, but who am I to question God's will?

Poverty in Haiti causes so many to flee in hopes of gaining a better life in the states. Riots are still going on now in Haiti as I write this. How does "La Perle des Antilles" (The Pearl of the Caribbean) fall into such circumstances? The first black nation to gain it's freedom to slavery now, we're the slaves to poverty and suffering. Risking our lives in hopes to live. My mother was Ti Rose 24 years ago, taking that risk to live and to give her children a better life, the first time she was stranded at sea with dead people on board, then later on wandering around Cuba loosing her mind. When she made it back to Haiti everyone thought she was a ghost because they thought she had passed on like many others on the boat, rather then staying in safety she tried again and she made it. Everyday I'm grateful that she did. She made it, my brother made it 8 years ago, yet the Lord called Ti Rose home.

R.I.P Ti Rose, you'll forever live in our hearts, all the sins of this world erased from your heart as you stand amongst angels.