Photo caption: From left to right: Parnel, Keila, Linabelle, Molina, and Keysha St-Louis are making their home in Montreal following the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Photo by Marg Buchanan

Haiti earthquake survivors thrive in new Canadian home

“Living in Montreal today is a gift that God has given us.”

By Marg Buchanan and ChristianWeek | February 13, 2015

MONTREAL, QC—On the morning of January 12, 2010, Molina St-Louis asked her husband the same question she had asked many times before: “Don’t you think we should leave Haiti and move to Canada?”

Parnel, who would drive a friend to the airport that afternoon to take the Port-au-Prince / Montreal flight, gave his usual answer. No, he did not want to immigrate to Canada, as many of his friends were doing. Life was relatively good for the St-Louis family in Haiti—two jobs, a house, a car, two healthy children, a local church and the familiarity of being surrounded by family and friends.

As his friend’s flight was leaving the runway that ordinary Tuesday afternoon, Parnel headed downtown to pick up his wife at the hairdresser’s. Seconds after he parked his car, the ground shook, buildings collapsed, the lights went down and people began running into the road screaming.

Ordinary was wiped away in an instant, replaced by horrific and terrifying.

“I saw people crushed by falling buildings right in front of me,” Parnel says. Molina remembers a woman running into the street screaming, “My child! My child is dead! My child!”

Through the chaos, the destruction and the panic, Parnel and Molina found each other and eventually regained their home, where their two little girls, two-year-old Keila and three-month-old Keysha, were safe with their babysitter. The house, however, was damaged. They would never sleep there again.

Within a few days, Parnel and baby Keysha began to have trouble breathing through the dust and the stench of rotting flesh. They decided to try to leave Haiti, to go somewhere safe—to go to Canada. Seven days after the earthquake, on January 19, the family was huddled on the floor of a military plane with dozens of compatriots, all dressed for tropical weather, part of a humanitarian evacuation program that brought hundreds of Haitians to Montreal in the days and weeks that followed the disaster.

Fortunately, the Canadian Red Cross was waiting for them, with coats, tuques and blankets. They were taken to the YMCA, with their meagre belongings. Finding accommodations and finding work in a strange city were the first challenges, and the clock was ticking. The “Y” was offering lodgings for a month and Haiti House—a social service provider in Montreal—was scrambling to help the hundreds of new arrivals who landed on their doorstep, pleading for assistance. Parnel and Molina kept praying.

“When I got my letter from the “Y” saying we had to move out, I went to Haiti House, but they said they had nothing for me. I was still out in the hall when the agent came looking for me. ‘Parnel,’ she said, ‘I think we might have found something. A woman just called who said they have two rooms to offer to a Haitian family, for up to three months. Would you like to meet her?’ Of course I said yes.”

The St-Louis’ moved into their Montreal home a few days later, where they would stay for four months. Parnel found work while Molina tried to adapt to Canadian appliances and household routines. She says the girls enjoyed the attention of their new auntie and uncle.

“We are so thankful for the warm welcome we received,” says Parnel. “We are thankful for what Canada did for us, for the warmth of the people of Montreal, for everybody who helped us to settle in to our new lives.”

Five years after the catastrophe that turned their world upside down, the St-Louis family is well-established. Both parents work, Keila and Keysha are in school, and their little Canadian sister is in daycare. In 2014 they celebrated receiving their permanent residency in Canada. Two months ago, they bought a house.

Parnel says they are happy in their French-Canadian church, although he admits he has to adjust his worship style because he was used to a little more dancing in church back home. Hockey, however, remains a mystery. “No, I can’t say I’m really a Habs fan,” he says. “I still don’t understand that game!”

When Parnel first met their Canadian hosts, he says the family encouraged him with a verse that says to not worry about anything, but to pray for everything (Philippians 4:6). “This verse has been close to my heart ever since,” he says. “Just as he promised, God has been with us, every step of the way.

“Living in Montreal today is a gift that God has given us.”