Postscript

January 14th, 1995

Ma died. Aged 73. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's laid her low. Thank God we all got home for Christmas. Ma always liked to have her five kids around her and this was the first time in fifteen years. We were able to say goodbye to her. She recognized each one of us in turn, at some place in her strange, lost mind. At least, we each in turn believe so. An old or remembered expression in her eyes, a glimmer of a smile. For me it was the day I left. When I hugged her, she clung to me, her eyes charged with panic as if she knew this was the very last time, and I knew it too. It was utterly distressing, utterly wonderful. We, the five 'orphans' have never been so close and we promise each other we'll stay in touch.

March 30th, 1995.

In Haiti, Mme. Mireille Durocher Bertin, the lawyer, has been assassinated. A gunman ran up to her car in downtown Port-au-Prince, fired through the window, killing her and her driver. I check the library for details. Facts on File, May 4 '95, p.331, simply states the facts in two sentences. Apparently, Tim was in Haiti at the time. I call him. He doesn't know much about it. 'The authorities claim it was a drug related incident,' he says. Maybe. When Mme. Mireille Durocher Bertin (and two other lawyers) signed a document declaring the Washington Accord 13 unconstitutional on the 17th March, 1992, she was restating her opposition to Aristide's return. She had hinted to us that she would run for office herself, should the timing be right. She despised Aristide and made no secret of it. She was also certain that she would come to a violent end. I know she was a member of the élite and that she had a following. I know she had the courage of her beliefs. I know nothing else about her or her part in Haiti's turmoil. I do remember, vividly, her slim wrist circled by a rusty slave shackle as she talked to us of 'freedom' in the beautiful garden of her home in Pétionville.

March 5th , 2004

It's known now that one of the Aristide 'chimeres'—yet another name for the gangsters every Haitian leader seems to attract-murdered her. She must have been too outspoken, too visibly threatening to Aristide.

Aristide did not fulfill his promises; he was not the savior of Haiti but he was lawfully elected and deserved a lawful finale. Haiti's struggling Democracy, flawed though it was, has lost another chance.

Nola Gaye Schiff grew up in Zimbabwe, when it was called Rhodesia. She went to London to become an actor, eventually joining the BBC. She was the dubbing editor on The World at War for Thames TV.

She later moved to New York and became a US citizen, before traveling the world to, among other places: Nicaragua, Grenada, South Africa, Hong Kong during the handover from British Sovereignty.

She began writing fiction eight years ago, using the pseudonym: A.M. Winter, receiving an MFA from Vermont College in 2001. Her first novel is called The Hissing Tree (2002). She won an Eaton Short Story Award in 1997 and was a finalist in Stand Magazine's (UK) Short Story Competition in 1998, with 'Mabel', a short published in Crimson Online Magazine.

She currently works as a freelance video editor and is writing a new novel entitled Drought set in Zimbabwe.

Her article 'Haiti Brief', about her own experience as part of a film crew in Haiti during the early 1990's appears in Issue One of Projected Letters.