Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

In the present, as he does every year, Albom celebrates New Year’s Eve in Haiti with the children. They sing songs, eat a traditional Haitian dish called soup joumou, and sing Chika’s favorite song, “Love” by Nat King Cole, in remembrance. When Albom returns to Michigan, he finds Chika’s spirit under his desk looking for fairy doors. She learned to do this at the children’s hospital, where countless tiny doors existed along the baseboards, meant for children to find and open. The doors were a source of magic and hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. Albom considers the importance of hope in dealing with terminal illness; its opposite, despair, can be detrimental to both the person with the illness and those around them. He recalls arguing more with Janine as Chika’s illness became more severe. In one instance, Chika developed sepsis when the IV port in her chest became infected. The infection weakened Chika and made her overall condition worse, and Janine implied that Albom was to blame for allowing its insertion. Eventually, Albom and Janine realized that when Chika was gone, they would be left with only each other. They tried to stop making each other the enemy.