From the perspective of Guesno Mardy, Gardy’s father
I was with my wife in our office downtown Port Au Prince, working on the investigation, working on the search for Gardy, and by 4pm the earthquake happened.
ap photo / jorge cruz
My office collapsed and we got my wife out a few hours later. She was under debris. But it was a trauma to her, she wouldn’t sleep under a roof.
ap photo / Tyler anderson
No legal services were available, every family had to manage to do their own thing, to do their own funerals for their loved ones.
So you can imagine after that happened, when you, a father with a kidnapped son, goes to the authorities, they were too busy you know doing other things to think about my kidnapped son. No legal services were available, every family had to manage to do their own thing, to do their own funerals for their loved ones. I lost [my mom], my sister, my brother-in-law, and a close friend that was helping me find Gardy. We managed to have a coffin, you know, something to pack them in, and we just dug a hole.
But I cannot accept, I cannot deal with the kidnapping of my son.
I accepted the casualties during the earthquake, I have seen it, I have lived it, it is a natural catastrophe, and I deal with it. But I cannot accept, I cannot deal with the kidnapping of my son. This case is unacceptable so I will not rest in peace without having an answer to what happened.
You know, even the scenario of the earthquake, I think about it and cry asking, “Where was [Gardy] at the time? What happened?” And we cried about it, knowing we should be there protecting him and caring for him. That’s the hardest part. It’s something really hard to bear.
