Brother Harry

Someone wonderful died yesterday and vivid memories of him are flooding into my thoughts.

How many people start a new career at age 60? Brother Harry arrived in Haiti in 1989 when he was 60 years old. He lived in a small house in Pondiassou, a small village about 3 miles west of the city of Hinche. I am not certain what his goals were but he was a member of the Catholic order of the Xavarian brothers who are dedicated to education so I guess he came to Haiti to educate. And educate he did. 

On my first couple of trips to Pondiassou and Hinche (2006 and 2007) I did not meet Harry, but some of the doctors who were with me met him as they were looking for Cokes and beer and found Harry had a supply just up the road a bit. Those first few visits our main translators were Manno and Theo who were from a village called Clory about a mile north of Pondiassou. We learned that they had walked from Clory to Pondiassou, where there was no school, and met with Brother Harry every day in order to learn English and to read and write in both Creole and English. (Later, with donations from midwives, a school was built in Clory.)

Frankly, without translators Midwives For Haiti would never have happened. Therefore without Brother Harry Midwives For Haiti would not have happened. Our "school" for midwives started with 8 nurses and met under the mango tree in the courtyard of the Little Sisters of the Incarnation. Our teachers were American volunteers who came sporadically- whenever I could get them scheduled. Our curriculum was just "whatever we can teach them from A Book for Midwives". We figured if they knew what was in that book, they would save some lives of mothers and babies. That was our goal. 

Manno and Theo were our life lines while we were in Haiti. They managed our logistics and taught us about Hinche. Since our students did not know when we would be there, and it was pre-cell-phone time, Theo would go around to each of their homes to spread the news that the midwives were coming! They would drop their normal lives and all turn up at 8 am promptly on Monday mornings for a week of training. The midwives who happened to be there were frequently not the same from one week to the next and left notes for each other so that each would know what material had been covered and what they had learned from the students. 

Sometime in the late 90's, a group of Catholics from Richmond, Virginia had helped a Haitian man build an orphanage for boys in Hinche. Brother Harry started spending a lot of time educating boys there and when they built a guest house he left Pondiassou and moved into the guest house to be closer to his work. 

That is where I met Brother Harry. Since Midwives For Haiti had no headquarters or house, we rented space from either the rectory of the parish or the bishop's compound L'Eveche. When we learned there was a guest house available at the MFO (Maisson Fortune Orphanage) we started sending all of our volunteers there for their stay. I think we perhaps paid $35/night. We felt good that we were supporting the orphanage at the same time that we were working to educate midwives.

Every morning at MFO guesthouse, Brother Harry would fix breakfast for his guests. It was usually coffee and oatmeal and he enjoyed the dried cranberries or raisins or nuts that we brought with us to add to the oatmeal. Supper was fixed by some cooks they hired and we all pitched in to do the dishes. 

Before supper each evening, Brother Harry would gather all guests on the beautiful stone porch overlooking the grounds of the orphanage. He would have a reading of something meaningful and then he would invite us to comment on the reading and on what we had learned from Haiti that day. More than one of us sobbed as we unloaded all of our feelings about what we were seeing and what we were learning about life in Haiti. No one who goes to Haiti does not struggle to see how a loving God can allow such suffering. 

Brother Harry could be seen during each day holding his lessons on the porch with 8-10 boys around him learning games and learning English and learning wisdom. Later he was joined by Brother Mike and Brother Bill. Each of their personalities and skills brought gifts to us and the boys. Brother Mike was always the one who brought us boys with medical issues. Brother Bill was the fix-it man and he never fixed a sink or toilet without some boys around him learning how to do the same.

There were frequently new kittens on the porch. Between the kittens, the nourishing meals, and the spiritual insights, and the cushioned wooden benches, we loved our times on the porch with "the Brothers". We had so many wonderful conversations with these men and we admired their love and dedication to the orphans. After the 2010 earthquake a girl's orphanage was started next door and it gave the Brothers even more to do. Although all of the children went to school on the campus each day, late afternoons and evenings saw them seeking out the company of the gentle and loving Brothers. 

In 2011, Midwives For Haiti started renting their own house but that did not stop our visits to check on the Brothers. The following year we found an even bigger house that met many more of our needs and started renting it from Father Noel, a Haitian priest whose family owned the house. One of my favorite things to do was to invite "the Brothers" for dinner one night. I would put 3 tables together, 2 long and one short at the end to create a large rectangle table. I would get out our best tablecloths and it would usually take 3 to cover the table. The cooks would be notified how many guests were coming. I would bake bread and Steve would make homemade ice cream with our 2 gallon White Mountain ice cream maker. Sometimes we celebrated birthdays, like Pastor Jude, and have cake. 

When the Brothers were coming for dinner it was really special. We would greet them at the door with smiles and hugs and offers of drinks. Brother Mike did not want "adult Coke", a mixture of Coke and rum. He wanted just "the adult". They looked forward to these evenings of food and fellowship as much as we did and at the end of each evening we were all filled with love and gratitude. 

When Brother Harry was in his 80's he started having a lot of back pain from a progressive degeneration of his spine. He traveled back to the U.S. for therapy now and then but always came back to Haiti. He wanted to be live and die there and had his burial place picked out. One of his volunteers, a law student named Ryan Kenrick, who later joined the Midwives For Haiti Board of Directors, told us about Brother Harry showing him the spot he had chosen for his burial plot. 

Not all was well with the leadership of Maisson Fortune. The Brothers would advocate for the children, asking for toothbrushes and more food and books. They would be told that money was being sent but then would see no evidence of it being spent for the children. A delegation of Catholics from Richmond came down to investigate. Without knowing details of what transpired, we heard that the Brothers were being asked to leave. We were devastated for the children. 

So the Brothers all went back to the states. Brother Harry went to a nursing home in Kentucky. Brother Mike became a hospice worker, and Brother Bill ended up coming back to Haiti to work in another area. I remember when Brother Mike came to Haiti to clean out Brother Harry's house in Pondiassou. Getting rid of his bike, his pots and pans, his small personal bits was very hard. He came to our house to say goodbye to us. We reminisced about our wonderful times together. He mentioned how many wonderful midwives he had met over the years through our organization. When I learned he was going through training to be a hospice worker I said, "You're going to be a midwife to the dying!" He teared up and said being a midwife would be a huge honor. We hugged and said goodbye, each to go back to our missions richer for the friendships we had made.

I am copying here the letter Steve Applegate wrote this morning regarding Brother Harry that includes Brother Harry's own words about his time in Haiti.

Harry Eccles passed away yesterday in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 92/93.

Harry was one of the first Americans I met in Haiti. Hinche to be exact. He was a Xaverian Brother who served and lived at the Maison Fortunate Orphanage.  Whenever I would be walking in Hinche, young men would come up to me wanting to practice their English. I'd always remark how well they spoke English. When I asked where they learned to speak English so well, their reply was always the same, "Brother Harry."

We became good friends. I treasure the moments we were able to sit on the MFO porch early in the morning, before others had awakened, chat while drinking coffee and eating Harry's infamous oatmeal.

God bless you, Harry. You were an inspirational, spiritual, kind, soft spoken man, who was able to get dressed and show up everyday, in Haiti. That made all the difference.

In Harry's own words:

"After a few "exploratory" visits to Haiti in the '80s, I went in '89 with Brother John Mahoney to live in Pandyasou, Hench,with the Little Brothers of the Incarnation.  Brother Cosmas Rubencamp, Haiti expert for the diocese of Richmond, was our guide then and for years to come.  It was because of Cos that I met Jean-Louis Lefort.

After about 15 years, I needed a break from the daily Pandyasou-Hench commute, and, with Nick McCann (a Xaverian volunteer) went to live in the just-finished guest house at Maison Fortune.  We and other Xaverian volunteers had been making the trek to MFO even before the present campus opened. These young volunteers made great big brothers and sisters for the children, and I was the porch-sitting "grandfather."  Actually, my morning coffee pot and oatmeal did get good reviews.

My memory file is somewhat moth-eaten, but these volunteers are unforgettable: Chris Lecher, David Goy, Jonathan Dohanich, Chris Roberson, Mike Mcgeehin, Brian Goss, David Patterson, Jana and Ben Robbins, Greg Mason, Ryan Kenrick, Kevin McArdle, Nick McCann, Paddy Lynch, Peter Everest, and Caitlin Gordon.  There were others (especially from Penn State) who spent "winter breaks" with us, including high school groups from Mt. St. Joseph, Bishop Sullivan, Good Counsel.  The experience was growthful for volunteers and children.

Most visitors at the guest house were drawn there by MFO, but even those with other priorities shared with us in activities and reflection. Paramount among them are Midwives for Haiti, marvelous women (and a few men) with world-wide experience, who worked to improve feminine health.

Two memorable events of these years were weather-related.  Although Hinch was not damaged by the 2010 earthquake, MFO's population was swelled by refugees from Port-au-Prince.  Another year our campus was flooded, and the children were evacuated to St. Martin de Porres High School.  I think they enjoyed the adventure.  I stayed high and dry on the second floor;  Louisville's 1937 flood was enough for me!

The most significant event of my tenure was the opening of a home for girls; this later developed into a separate campus. Truly impressive!

My own experience was enhanced when Brothers McCarthy and Bill Griffin joined me.  Their "youth," energy, and creativity complemented my grandfather's role, and I was happy to be escorted across the campus by helpful kids who carried my book bag to English class."

I think of Brother Harry when I think of all that can be done between the ages of 60 and 90. He was such an inspiration to me when I wanted to give up our mission in Haiti. I think of Brother Harry when I see pictures of Jesus with the children around his feet. I think of Brother Harry when I think of the hundreds of lives that were changed in Haiti because of the education he provided. Oh, Brother Harry, I miss you so much!