Finding Chika summary

The earthquake of January 12, 2010, had flattened a great swathe of Haiti. Soon afterward, the bestselling writer Mitch Albom, who ran a radio show in Detroit, hosted a local pastor called John Hearn Jr. Hearn was worried that an orphanage in Port-au-Prince that he was associated with had been destroyed.

After hearing the pastor’s troubling stories of children buried beneath rubble, Mitch Albom was so moved that he decided that he would visit Haiti and try to help in whichever way he could.

Mitch grew especially fond of one bold little girl at the orphanage, “Chika” Jeune. She was bossy, often directing the other children like a drill sergeant, telling them who should go first in relay races or which doll they could play with. She had a strong voice and a stubborn streak.

Not too long after taking over the orphanage, Mitch received a call from its attendant, known by the children as Mr. Alain.

Mitch Albom had become world-famous for writing a book called Tuesdays with Morrie. This was the story of a favorite professor of his who’d been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The book was a chronicle of the Tuesdays that Mitch spent with Morrie while he was ill and the deep wisdom that he passed on.

When Chika arrived to live with him and Janice, he would learn comparable lessons.

As she slowed Mitch and Janice’s world right down, Chika also began to make them see things afresh. A little jaded, as many people are in their middle age, this was a real gift.

Like many kids, one of Chika’s favorite things was watching Disney films. Before each of them begins, there is the famous animation of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. One day, Chika asked if it was a real castle. Mitch and Janice told her that it was, and that they would go and see it one day. Then, one night, after putting her to bed, they noticed how her hair had started to fall out in patches as the chemotherapy took effect. They decided that they should go to Disneyland right then.

After she’d undergone several bouts of radiation treatment, Mitch took Chika to meet his own father, who was wheelchair-bound at the time and unwell. Chika was surprised to find that Mitch had a father at all, but she called him Pop Pops and hugged him nevertheless.

Mitch’s father had been something of a paternal rock. A quiet, dignified man, at the age of 17 he’d had to look after Mitch’s mother’s family after her father died. He’d cooked breakfast for everyone in the morning, acted as a father-figure to Mitch’s uncle, his mother’s younger brother, and effectively ran the household. He shouldered enormous responsibility for someone so young, but it suited him. He grew into the kind of person that others came to for advice, money, or aid.

After her treatment in the US, Mitch took Chika back to Haiti to visit the orphanage several times. On one of these occasions, Mitch heard that Chika’s father was still alive. Chika had not seen her father, Fedner Jeune, since her mother’s death. In fact, Mitch had been informed he might also be dead. But he was alive and well, in a commune called Tabarre, forty minutes by car from the orphanage.

So, with Chika’s diagnosis in mind, Mitch took her to meet him.

Chika fought bravely and her cancer had been kept at bay. Her initial diagnosis had only given her four months to live, yet she’d been with Mitch and Janice for 19. Because of her radiation treatment, she’d been able to live in relative comfort for some time. But then, quite rapidly, she began to deteriorate. Her motor ability worsened and she became unsteady on her feet.

In their desperation, Mitch and Janice scoured the internet for alternative treatments. Anything to heal her. They found one possible option in Cologne, Germany. They traveled at the first opportunity and rented a small apartment not far from the clinic. The treatment involved developing an immune response from Chika’s own cells. It was their last chance.