Susie Scott describes her emotional, entertaining and sometimes heart-breaking journey from Playboy centerfold to humanitarian in Angels of a Lower Flight.She’s not your typical Mother Theresa type, but she’s brave and determined to help children in Haiti. I admire Susie Scott because although she’s tough and had a violent background, she didn’t let that stop her from caring or making a difference.
She was also able to write this memoir so skillfully that you could picture what she was describing and feel the pain as well.
When Susie Scott was finally happily married, she felt the need to do more and set out for Haiti with her friend Gary where about 80% of Haitians live in abject poverty and the unemployment rate is more than 70%.
Most thought she was crazy and she had a hard time finding a driver to take her there, but Susie made a beeline for the poorest most dangerous area. Known for its violence and gangs with the reputation as the worst slum in Haiti she headed to Cité Soleil.
After a couple rough starts and rip offs from “vagabonds” as they call con men in Haiti, she managed to get a feeding center and schoolhouse built with the help of her husband Joe, brother Mark and several tattooed, muscled and sometimes stoned gang members in Haiti.
They named it "The Mercy Center" and after seeing so many bodies, bullets and machetes, Susie grew tougher. Her brother Mark’s death may have given her a strange strength. Sick of being approached with guns she started saying, “If you’re gonna try and scare me, at least cock the dad-gum thing.”
Wanting to do more, she began volunteering at an understaffed public hospital in Port-au-Prince encountering abandoned, neglected, disabled and malnourished children. Many of these disabled children are abandoned because of a widespread belief system that such a child is a curse, but Susie Scott embraces them recognizing the familiar wounded look in their eyes from her own childhood.
All profits from Angels of a Lower Flight go towards helping children in Haiti. It is a deeply moving story Susie Scott bravely shares that will leave you forever changed.Angels of a Lower Flight: One Woman's Mission to Save a Country . . . One Child at a Time
I'd like to read this. It sounds like those kids needed a strong yet caring person to do what she did. Makes me wonder if all things DO happen for one reason or another.
ReplyDeleteIt was one of my favourites. Mom might have it, so I'll ask her if she's finished with it.
ReplyDelete