"Louise"

We know a woman, I’ll call Louise, who lives in the Bahamas.  She’s from South Carolina but her and her husband moved to Nassau 47 years ago to work with the Haitians there.  Since there is no work in Haiti, many risk their lives by sailing across the ocean where they live without permission and work for cash to support their families back home.

Louise’s husband died 22 years ago, yet she continued the work, supporting in whatever way she could, those without a voice.  The Haitians in Nassau are forever being taken advantage of because if they complained to the police about any mistreatment, they’d be sent back.  It creates an interesting dichotomy.

My husband is a retired carpenter who often fills his days doing volunteer work, so when Louise invited us to visit her, we expected to work - and we did - a little.

While there, we did a few things to help her, but mostly - she helped us.  She helped us see how many people in the world are being taken advantage of because of their life’s circumstances.  She told us about one Haitian guy that got a job for two days doing yard work for a local Bahamian man, but never got paid.  This is typical, but it’s not to be tolerated, according to Louise.

That woman is fearless.  Standing no more than five feet tall, 77-years-old, shocking white hair and a look in her eye that lets everyone know she’s not to be messed with, she steps in during times like these.  She insisted the Haitian accompany her while she straightened out the situation.

They drove to the Bahamian’s house and banged on the door.  As firmly and politely as she could muster in her deep South Carolina accent, she said, “Excuse me, but my friend here said that he worked for you for two days and you didn’t pay him.” 

“I don’t have any money,” was the response.

“But he did the work and you owe him the money,” she insisted.

“I still don’t have the money,” the man said.

“But you had an agreement and he did what you asked and you need to pay him.”

“I told you, I don’t have the money,” he said again.

Louise stood there staring at the man, then looked around at his house and property.

“Is that your car there?” she asked, pointing to his car in the driveway.

“Yes, but I still don’t have the money.”

“That’s a pretty nice car,” she said.  “You know, it wouldn’t take much for someone to come back here one night with a spray paint can and give it a new color.”

The man disappeared into his house and returned with a handful of cash and gave it to the Haitian.  He then said to Louise, “You know, you are one mean old white lady.”

Louise’s response was, “Yeah, I get that a lot.  Don’t you mess with my people.”

Louise’s life mission is to help those who literally cannot help themselves.  I’ve never met anyone like her and it made me think twice about the purpose of my own life.  Whatta woman.