Cousin in Haiti ‘proud’ of Jean

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This article was published 30/01/2010 (6039 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JACMEL, Haiti — Standing on the stoop of the little white house where she grew up — the one she won’t leave now, despite the flashbacks — Camille Depestre Garoute lights up when she hears the name Michaëlle Jean.

“Of course I know her,” Garoute says without hesitation Friday. “We’re cousins.”

She’s been staying with a friend until the cracks in the walls of her house are repaired.

“I’m really scared,” says Garoute, waving her hands in the air. “I keep thinking it’s happening again, but it’s not real. My head isn’t right.”

But fear goes when she speaks of Canada’s Governor General.

“We used to watch her on television, and we were so proud of her,” Garoute says. “It’s no small thing to become Governor General, you know. She’s a woman of great stature.”

For Jean, the earthquake tragedy in Haiti has been especially personal. She was born in Port-au-Prince, but spent much of her childhood in Jacmel, her mother’s seaside hometown. Some of her mother’s extended family still lives here.

— Canwest News Service