PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—A little over a year ago, I was standing in a hospital room in Belladere, Haiti, listening to a haunting melody. We didn’t know her name or age—but we knew why she had come. Government officials had found a starving woman left neglected and dying in the streets, and brought her to the hospital for what would probably be her final days. Lying on a cot in an unfinished room, she sang out two hauntingly beautiful notes that echoed off the concrete walls, then closed her eyes.

A year later, I’m standing inside a small chapel on the grounds of a hospital in Port-au-Prince. Another hauntingly beautiful melody rings out, but this time, it is one of hope.   

Her name is Desir Marie Esther and she is a survivor of the January earthquake. She is also an orphan and since age 11, has been living under the care of Father Rick’s orphanage outside the capital city.

We were introduced to Desir by Father Rick at the St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince where he serves as a doctor, priest and visionary.

“She has a really good voice,” he told us.

Desir has been singing in her church since she was six years old. After the quake, the now 29-year-old young woman was inspired to write a song.

“Do you know who Andrea Boccelli is?” Father Rick casually asked me.

I nodded in immediate recognition of the world-renown Italian tenor singer.

“He’s performing a benefit concert in Milan, Italy, in two months to help our efforts here in Haiti and Desir is going to perform her song there,” he said, beaming with pride.

In the small chapel on the grounds of St. Damien hospital, I listened as Desir’s pure voice rang out, accompanied only by the occasional sound of babies crying in the distance from one of the pediatric wards.

It was hauntingly beautiful … a melodic tribute to the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the quake and to the broken and hurting survivors who remain.

Click here to listen to Desir’s song and view a special photo gallery in remembrance of the six-month anniversary of the Haiti quake.

Tags: Belladere, Belladere Hospital, Caribbean, Desire's Song, Earthquake, Haiti, OBI, OBI Video, Operation Blessing, Pediatric Hospital, Port-au-Prince, St. Damien Hospital

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Caribbean, Earthquake, Haiti, Medical relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.