Rudy Perrault, a Haitian-born music professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, has heard that his mother and father are alive in his earthquake-ravaged homeland.
Now, he hopes to persuade his mother to move to the United States.
"My mother is one stubborn woman," Perrault said Friday. "For 20 years, we have tried to get her to come to the States or Canada. But Haiti was her home. Now, her home is destroyed and her city is a shambles. There is not much hope to go back to her home. I truly hope she will come to the states."
Perrault, who spent Tuesday and Wednesday worrying about his parents, said his sister found his mother unhurt after walking down from the mountains into Port-au-Prince.
The earthquake had destroyed the road into the city. "They finally connected at my mom's house," he said. "The top floor had collapsed on to the first floor."
Perrault's sister also located their father, who lives separately. "My sister said he's a little shaken up, but OK," Perrault reported.
Perrault's mother escaped from a church meeting when the quake struck around 5 p.m. Tuesday.
"My mother was able to organize everyone and get them out [of the church] alive and safe," Perrault said. The church was destroyed.
