“Life Always Triumphs”: Part ONE
Haitian-born Poet and painter Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is graceful, poised, and always ready with smile. Her eyes sparkle and seem full of delicious secrets, joys, and fond memories. She is wise, youthful, and unapologetically sensuous.
And then she speaks.
The voice is rhythmic, charged yet calm: Tango meets Yanvalou. She is both guarded and forthcoming. Michèle reveals just enough details to make her listener think she’s given all the answers. Instead, she’s the one asking questions–deceptively simple questions the answers to which have to come from your own soul.
It’s hard to imagine that this lady in her “I-do-as-I-please,” stop-sign-red lace top has stood at the very gates of hell. Parts of her—though elegantly veiled now —have been scorched by life’s raging fires. And, still, she rises.
“I have no regrets,” Michèle says with a hint of defiance. “Every single catastrophe I’ve been through makes me who I am today.”
Hell is no match for Michèle’s determination anyhow. The catastrophes of which she speaks might have unhinged most people.
In her indescribably serene voice, she says: “After my first husband was shot dead, I found myself face down on the kitchen floor, writhing and broken with despair. My stomach was knotted with fear and sadness. I told myself I had just two choices: I could live or I could die. My son was 12 years old at the time. The choice was simple. I had to live to take care of my child. Some say that death has the final say. That is not true. Life does. Life always triumphs.”
End of Part 1