She’s been caring for her nephews since her sister died just weeks after giving birth
Claudemene Joseph boarded a flight from Turks and Caicos bound for Miami on Oct. 15, 2022. She was 27 weeks pregnant with twins and planned a trip to visit her sister, Marie Baron, and do some shopping for the babies.
She never made it to her sister’s house in North Miami Beach. She never got to hold her babies.
Joseph became seriously ill during the flight and was rushed by paramedics from the airport to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was diagnosed with HELLP Syndrome, a life-threatening pregnancy complication and variant of pre-eclampsia. After further testing and scans, doctors also determined that Joseph had Stage 4 breast cancer, which had spread throughout her body.
The twin boys, Scott and Jerry Narcius, were delivered by emergency c-section. They each weighed two pounds. They were intubated and placed in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit with respiratory issues and other medical complications.
Joseph died in the hospital 45 days later. She was 42.
“My sister never got to hold her babies; she only got to see them twice, through the NICU window, from a wheelchair, when I took her over from her hospital room,” said Baron, who has been taking care of her nephews since her sister’s death. “I was going to take her a third time, but she cried and cried, and told me she was too weak to even get in the wheelchair.”
It has been just over a year since her sister passed away, and still, Baron’s voice quivers when she recalls those harrowing weeks watching her sister and nephews fighting for their lives in separate hospital beds.
“Her flight was supposed to land at 5 o’clock that day, and I didn’t hear from her, so I started to worry,” said Baron, who was a year younger and extremely close to her sister when they were growing up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. “It got to be 6 o’clock, 7, 8, and I said, “Oh, what happened?’’ I called Turks and Caicos. Her husband said he had dropped her off at the airport and she had taken off. At 9 p.m., she sent a picture from her phone and told me she was in the hospital at Jackson.”
Visiting hours had passed, so Baron had to wait until the next morning to see Joseph.
When they finally reunited, Baron realized her sister was gravely ill.
“She was suffering a lot, crying a lot, pain, pain, pain,” Baron said. “It was very hard to see. I don’t know if she knew how sick she was, or if she was hiding things from me. We did not talk about that. I just prayed and prayed, stayed by her side, and went to visit the boys in the NICU every day.
“Before she died, she asked if I could take care of the boys. I have a son, who was 10 at the time, and I was working doing home health care and some hair styling to pay the bills and save money to take care of my son. I prayed, `God, give me strength. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I am going to do it.’”
Joseph was buried in Fort Lauderdale. The twins remained in NICU for three months and one of them, Scott, remained on oxygen for six months.
Joseph and her husband had two other children in Turks and Caicos, a 17-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, and the father continues to take care of them. Due to immigration issues, they cannot move to the United States. Plus, the twins needed extensive medical care the first six months and Scott still has some issues, so Baron feels it is best if she continues to be their caretaker.
Baron moved to Miami from Haiti in 2010 and worked hard to make a better life for herself and her son, Geovensley Desrosiers, who is 11.
With the added burden of the twins, she said she was forced to quit her job to care for the boys and take them to doctors appointments. The rent on her North Miami Beach home is $1,500, and she had to dip into her small savings account, which is now almost completely depleted.
“I spent what I had saved in my account for my son,” Baron said. “I used that money for the babies because I had to. Their father helps, but it is expensive. It has been difficult.”
She is grateful that her son loves the twins dearly and helps with them whenever he can.
“When one would wake up crying, he would wake up the other one and my son would say, `You take one, I’ll take one. I got you, Mama,’’’ Baron said. “I have been praying a lot. It is so stressful. But they are happy kids. They are healthier now, and both laugh a lot and that makes my heart full.”
The twins’ father flew to Miami two weeks ago and took them to Turks and Caicos for the holidays.
In the meantime, feeling desperate with her savings account dwindling, Baron searched online to explore a cheaper place to live with good job opportunities. She found Greenwood, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. She knew nothing about that town, other than she could rent a three-bedroom house for $900 a month, far less than she was paying for a home half that size in Miami.
She packed up her son and some belongings into her Infiniti Q50 and drove 1,185 miles to Greenwood. The trip took 18 hours. She found several job opportunities, and her son said he likes the neighborhood and local elementary school, from what he has seen. But Baron said she didn’t realize how cold it is in Indiana and how far away from home she would feel.
The low has been in the teens, and the high in the 30s.
She packed the car back up and returned to North Miami Beach.
She didn’t ask for any gifts for herself. But she does hope Wish Book can help her son and nephews: clothing (her son wears size 18 clothing, size 8 shoes. The twins are size 1), diapers, food, toys, baby items, and a basketball for her son.
Sherri Kelly, a social worker at the University of Miami Pulmonary Critical Care Department, and Lidia Diaz, who works in the UM Pediatric Pulmonary Department, nominated Baron to receive holiday help from the Miami Herald/el Nuevo Herald Wish Book program. Each year members of the community in need are highlighted by the Herald and readers can make donations.
“Marie is an angel and has done an amazing job and we would love to see her just get some help with food, clothing and baby items,” wrote Kelly.
Diaz added: “Despite a very difficult start in life, the babies are now smiling and interacting. They have a positive spirit, and their aunt is lovely. She is trying her best, always with a smile and a positive outlook, even after all she went through.”
HOW TO HELP
To help this Wish Book nominee and the more than 100 other nominees who are in need this year:
▪ To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook
▪ For more information, call 305-376-2906 or email Wishbook@MiamiHerald.com
▪ The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans
▪ Read all Wish Book stories on www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook
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