My friend dbd has a heart of gold. She takes in cats that no one else wants, sick and old or just abandoned. It breaks her heart when one dies. She takes in people too, not physically, not into her home but into her heart. She has many friends, all with stories to tell. Jean is one of them. He’s from Haiti. His is the story of a real American immigrant. He came here with nothing, he took English classes at night where he met dbd and became part of her extended family. He’s had the same job for over 10yrs and he has a family here and his son will be going to college soon. He has a family in Haiti too and goes back often to a small town far enough away from Port Au Prince to be considered safe.
When he comes back he tells dbd stories about the children who live in his town, about their poverty, their hopelessness. He was building a home in Haiti when one day a little 6yr boy showed up dressed in a raggedy t shirt and nothing else. He’d be there everyday. So Jean started to feed him and one day followed him home. Home was a one room shack with a dirt floor and several equally raggedy dressed hungry children. School is beyond a luxury for most children in Haiti. It only cost $55 to send a child to school. $55 to feed him or her, buy books, buy their only pair of shoes, their only uniform. So Jean sent these kids to school and when he told dbd she said of course she wanted to send them to school too. Dbd told me and now I send 4 kids to school and my mom does and our friends do and now there are almost 30 children eating everyday and going to school everyday.
Their families call my friend dbd the rich lady in America. Dbd is a very rich lady, if you measure wealth in effecting a life, in giving hope where there wasn’t any. Yep, dbd is very rich indeed. She’s a better friend to me then I can ever be to her and I’m very lucky to know her and say she is my friend.
Well that’s my Reader’s Digest story for today and these are drawings from of the photos of the children we send to school all proudly dressed in their not so new clothes and only shoes all provided for by the rich lady in America.