It All Started With A Dinner Party

The Late Carlos Reese, Co-Founder The CRUDEM Foundation, Inc.

The Late Carlos Reese, Co-Founder The CRUDEM Foundation, Inc.

By Stephen M. Reese

My folks were hosting a dinner party in 1986. The Deans, Kinsellas and Dubuques had come over for an evening of laughter, conversation and one of Mom’s great meals. They were having a good time, so when the Dubuques got up to leave early it sparked the question, ‘Why so soon?’ The answer began to unfold a string of events that continues to shape northern Haiti to this day.

Dr. Dubuque told the group he was leaving the next day to spend six months volunteering in Haiti. My Dad’s response was typically spontaneous, “You can’t do that, for that long, I’ll come visit.” So in December Dad accompanied Dr. Dubuque’s wife, Carol, on his first trip to CRUDEM. They arrived just in time to celebrate Dr. Dubuque’s birthday. Brother Yves was so happy to have visitors that he broke out a special bottle of champagne that he’d been saving to celebrate the event. The champagne was flatter than a pancake but that event went on to hold special memories for years to come.

When Dad returned home, he was a changed man. Dad couldn’t stand to see anyone suffer and what he had seen in Milot had really knocked the wind out of his sails. When Dr. Dubuque returned to St. Louis, they got together and talked about what they might be able to do.
Together they were an incredibly formidable team. Dr. Dubuque had the medical expertise; he recruited volunteers and lined up supplies and equipment to outfit an operating room. Dad took on the other side of the equation, he was the fundraiser. He talked to everyone. He approached his friends and colleagues and began a dialogue with the Order of Malta.

Nov. 1989, Brother Yves and Carlos Reese

Nov. 1989, Brother Yves and Carlos Reese

At one point, when things were looking particularly bleak, he approached, Msgr. Hartnett at Annunziata. Msgr. Hartnett was known to be an effective fundraiser and Dad was looking for advice. As they talked, a parishioner knocked on the door and presented Monsignor with a contribution of $10,000. Monsignor turned around and handed the check to Dad saying “Will this help?” That was the start of a long relationship between Annunziata and CRUDEM and just one of many examples where ‘not so subtle’ messages were sent.

Dad and Dr. Dubuque would continue to make a couple of trips to Milot for many years. Every time he returned home, Dad came home with an energy and a passion that was tangible. But he also came home with stories that made you realize what a challenge they were up against. The poverty was monumental, and unfortunately, so was the political instability. During one trip civil unrest was particularly high. Aristide had recently been deposed and U.S. troops had been called in to help maintain order. The road from Cap-Haitien had become a gauntlet for angry mobs and gruesome murders. Dad and Dr. Dubuque had been essentially trapped at the CRUDEM compound. Ultimately, they’d been able to make their way back to St. Louis with the help of a U. S. military helicopter ride from Cap-Haitien to Port au Prince. For this reason, and the fact that there were still a few of my younger siblings at home, Dad did not want Mom making the trip down to CRUDEM for several years.

Maury Hartigan, Carlos Reese & Dr. Dubuque

Maury Hartigan, Carlos Reese & Dr. Dubuque

It was 1994 before Mom made her first visit. She recalls the terrifying drive from Cap Haitien to the hospital; with the weaving traffic, and the monstrous pot holes, she was sure they were going to kill a child, or at least a chicken! (For anyone who has made their first visit to CRUDEM in the last few years it is hard to believe, but that road is a veritable interstate relative to what it was even five years ago.)

She also recalls the nighttime darkness. Pitch. Not a light anywhere. But in the morning the singing would start as the children gathered around the hospital. Back then we were one of the few buildings with electric lights, so they would come to the hospital courtyard to do early morning homework before heading off to school, dressed in their immaculate uniforms.

Over the years Mom and Dad made many more trips to Milot together. Each trip seemed to create its own stories, and a new collection of purchases from the street vendors outside the compound. But for all of the poverty and suffering that Dad saw on his trips, I don’t think I ever saw him happier than when he returned from one. He loved the people and he loved to be called ‘doctor’.

ReeseDad made his last trip to Milot in 1996; he passed away in 1998. I made my first trip in 2001. I was walking through the village and a boy of 11 or 12 rode by on his bicycle. As he rode past he yelled out “Bonjour Carlos!” Not so subtle indeed.

Stephen M. Reese of Saint Louis, MO, is a member of The CRUDEM Foundation Board of Directors and serves as its Treasurer. His father, the late Carolos Reese, was co-founder of CRUDEM/Hôpital Sacré Coeur.