Whatever Happened To ... the family missing, then found, in Haiti

William Saint-Hilaire sheds tears of relief in January.
(Linda Davidson - The Washington Post)

By Wil Haygood
Sunday, October 17, 2010
On Jan. 12, 2010, William Saint-Hilaire slipped into profound darkness. His wife and six children were among the missing in the 7.0 earthquake that had devastated Haiti, killing thousands. He had nightmares. He wondered, while sitting and pacing in his small basement apartment in Silver Spring, what part of Port-au-Prince they might be entombed in. But after several days of silence, the Saint-Hilaires emerged from the rubble, having escaped their home in the Petionville neighborhood and moved to a makeshift camp.
Saint-Hilaire, 46, called his family's survival through the earthquake and its immediate aftermath -- chronicled along with Saint-Hilaire's vigil in a Jan. 21 story on the front page of The Washington Post -- "a miracle."
Since then, donations and other aid have poured into the devastated country. After months of living in tents, the family was able to move to a small home near its old one.
"But my wife is very depressed," Saint-Hilaire says. "I was unable to get them out on humanitarian visas."
Saint-Hilaire says immigration officials denied him the visas because there were too many people with severe injuries who needed assistance first. Some had lost limbs; others needed life-saving surgery. Saint-Hilaire's family -- his wife, Lissa; Billy, 16; Bella, 15; Bello, 14; Benedict, 13; and 8-year-old twins Belline and Bellinda -- suffered scratches and little more, save for the trauma of seeing buildings collapse and encountering dead bodies everywhere.
Lately, Saint-Hilaire has started to worry about Benedict and the twins. "They all have eye infections that keep coming back after they go away for a little while. We think the infections are from all the days they spent sleeping on the ground and the bacteria."
Saint-Hilaire first came to America in 2003. In Haiti, he had been a teacher. He was outspoken against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, joining others who accused the then-president and his cronies of human rights abuses. Saint-Hilaire's wife feared he would not survive, given the political dynamics, so he left for New York, then made his way to Maryland. He worked hard to improve his English and joined the ministerial staff at Eglise Baptiste du Calvaire church in Adelphi, rising to become assistant pastor. He got work installing sprinkler systems for a company in Bethesda. All along, he dreamed of the day he could bring his family to America.
Saint-Hilaire was recently laid off from his job in Bethesda. But he's grateful to still have work at the church. His dream now is more modest, but it keeps him going forward: "My kids really want me to come back. ... I only want to go visit them, even if I can't get them out right now."

See original story:
Maryland pastor's family stranded in Haiti after deadly earthquake
Curious?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100805398.html