One of the hardest things Marilyn McIlroy ever had to do was leave the body of her friend, Yvonne Martin, behind.
McIlroy was leader of a team that had arrived in Haiti on Tuesday for a short-term medical mission. The team found themselves instead in the midst of the worst earthquake in Haiti’s history — an earthquake that has destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, the capital city, killing an estimated 50,000 people and injuring countless more.
It is also the earthquake that claimed the life of Alma-area resident Yvonne Martin.
McIlroy, and the rest of her medical mission team had to leave the guesthouse they had been staying in, moving to the Canadian embassy for safety.
Martin’s body was still buried in the rubble when they left.
The one thought that comforted McIlroy, as they left, was that it was only Martin’s physical body that was being left behind.
“I thought, ‘Lord, she’s in your arms now, in the arms of Jesus,’” said McIlroy. “She’s safe.”
Three Elmira members of the mission team coordinated by the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada sat down with the Elmira Independent on Saturday, one day after their return from their harrowing ordeal in Haiti.
McIlroy, Marilyn Raymer and Alice Soeder shared their experience, their love for Haiti, and their memories of Martin.
McIlroy recounted the strange sense of urgency she had in the minutes leading to the earthquake — a sense that the team should be “doing something,” not just hanging out in the guesthouse.
When McIlroy suggested spending some time in the pool, Martin jumped at the chance.
She was in the pool until 5:45 p.m., when she asked team members what time it was. She left the pool to get ready for supper.
Martin was only gone for a few minutes when the earthquake struck.
Her building was leveled.
McIlroy was on top of another building at the time, where she had been enjoying a rooftop view of Haiti.
She was with team members Dr. Lois McLaughlin, from Waterloo and Deb Paton from Barrie.
“It was literally like being on an ocean,” McIlroy said. “We were going up and down, up and down. I was thrown against the railing, and staggered to get down. I remember thinking, ‘Dear God help us, God protect us. We are in your hands.’”
When it was over, McIlroy looked over at the guesthouse and realized it was gone.
Raymer and Soeder were still by the pool.
“The pool heaved water; the pool was bending,” said Soeder. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”
The wall behind them had collapsed, and they had to scramble over the wall to safety.
A Haitian helped Soeder over the wall.
“He said, ‘Jesus, Jesus saves us,’” said Soeder. “I didn’t really think of anything until then.”
The team members struggled out together, and found themselves on the outside of the walled compound that they had been staying in.
They had to walk down the street to their dazed security officer, to be let back into the complex.
That’s when they really began to realize that Martin was missing.
“Yvonne had gone to get dressed for dinner,” said McIlroy.
“Given the timeline, we just knew she was (in the building,)” added Raymer.
It was a tough night for the remaining six members of the team.
They were unable to return to any of the buildings on the compound, because they weren’t considered structurally safe.
That meant sleeping outdoors in the compound, which was no longer secure, since several portions of the outer wall had collapsed.
They could hear the cries of the wounded and those in mourning throughout the night, and endured numerous aftershocks that sent them scurrying for safety.
And through it all, they knew that their friend was trapped beneath the rubble — and that there was nothing they could do about it.
Soeder found it particularly difficult. Martin was the main reason she was on this mission trip. Soeder said she had always wanted to go on a short-term mission, but hadn’t, since she was still in school. Now that she had finished university, she was ready. A chance meeting with Martin at the Elmira Tim Hortons convinced Soeder to come to Haiti.
“Yvonne was going to be my mother on this trip,” said Soeder, 23. “Instead, Marilyn (Raymer) took over.”
During the night, as Soeder thought about Martin, she finally turned to God for strength. Soeder, a member of St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Elmira, began to say the rosary, finding comfort in the prayer.
“I couldn’t pray right away, because I had to be strong, and I knew I would cry when I prayed,” said Soeder. But at 3 a.m., when all was quiet, Soeder said the rosary, and “had a good bawl with God.”
She and her colleagues found additional comfort when they heard the voices of nearby Haitians crying out — not with grief, as would be expected, but with praise.
“They were singing ‘How Great Thou Art,’” said Soeder.
“It was wonderful,” added Raymer.
“It was real faith,” said Soeder.
The team members were torn between hope and reality, when they thought of Martin that night. While two of the kitchen staff had made it out of the building alive, five others had died in the building. The portion that Martin was in had been particularly hard hit.
Raymer found it difficult to even close her eyes, thinking of Martin being trapped under the rubble. She even went as close as she dared on several occasions, calling out Martin’s name as loudly as she could.
“There was no response,” said Raymer, who spent the night trying to figure out how she could get close enough to make sure, once and for all, whether Martin was still alive.
In the end, an American staying in the compound took the risk of climbing over the rubble to get a good, close look.
He came to Raymer in the morning and told her that he was certain Martin was dead.
Shortly after, the missionaries had the opportunity to get to the Canadian embassy.
They made the tough decision to leave, knowing that where they were wouldn’t stay safe forever.
McIlroy, who had lived in Haiti as a missionary from 1983 to 1994, knew just how unsafe Haiti could be in this unstable situation. They had to leave.
They left Martin in the charge of the security staff at the guesthouse.
“It was very difficult to leave her behind,” said Raymer. “But we had no choice.”
Once at the embassy, Raymer made the toughest phone call of her life, sharing the news that Martin had died.
Her only solace was that Martin had said she always wanted to visit Haiti until she no longer could.
“She’s literally done that,” said Raymer.
The team spent all day Wednesday in the embassy, and began helping out with the many wounded that came through the doors. Given their medical training, they had been quickly pressed into service. Even Soeder, who was there as a “helper” to the team, did what she could, even if it was simply lending a listening ear.
“I had never been exposed to anything like this before,” said Soeder, who said she was pleased to be able to help. “The ladies were so competent, so quick to know what to do.”
Life in the embassy wasn’t much better than at the mission compound, although it was safer. Meals consisted of a plastic cup of mashed potatoes with squash soup poured over it, or small bags of cheezies. There was one washroom each for men and women even as hundreds of Canadians found their way to the secure grounds.
It was another night of camping out in the chilly mountain air.
By Thursday, however, the women were given the chance to leave Haiti on a military flight. The medical members of the team volunteered to help with the critically wounded on the flight.
“It was very therapeutic for us medical people to help,” said McIlroy.
They flew into Florida, then switching to a commercial flight to Montreal.
There, the Red Cross met them, offering assistance with the remainder of their trip. They declined, preferring to make their own plans to get back home as soon as possible.
By Friday, they were back on their way to Toronto.
“All our family members were there,” said Soeder. “It was good, good to be home.”
The team is still trying to process their experience — something that has likely been even more challenging given the media attention that has surrounded Martin’s death, as the first confirmed Canadian victim of the earthquake.
But they are finding that their faith has given them the strength to cope with the loss, as well as the devastation they have seen in a country they love.
McIlroy, upon her return, found that the calendar devotional reading for Jan. 13, the day after the earthquake, couldn’t have been more appropriate.
The Bible reading came from Psalm 46, verses 1 and 2: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”
“In all of that, God was my refuge,” said McIlroy. “I felt, all the time, that I was being carried along by the prayers of believers.”

For more local coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, pick up this week's Independent.