LEOMINSTER — Meeting each other for the first time in person was a memorable and meaningful experience for Phyllis Maston and Dieusson Louis.
The longtime city resident welcomed the young man from Haiti she had sponsored 12 years ago and sent to college to her home on Jan. 22. Together along with friends they celebrated Dieusson’s 31st birthday with a first for him — a birthday cake.
“He has been a real blessing in my life,” Phyllis said of her ‘adopted’ son who calls her mom. “He came running up the sidewalk and he had the biggest grin on his face and tears in his eyes. He didn’t want to let me go.”
She shared that his mother passed away when he was four. Dieusson grew up in one bedroom house with his eight siblings with very little food and clothing and then lost his dad too, his best friend, when he was just 16.
When he was younger, he helped at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince along with his sisters to unpack donations from sponsors in America. The organization was called Haitian Outreach, which was started in 1998 by Leominster residents Lori and Norman Charpentier, good friends of Phyllis.
One day Dieusson noticed a tag with Phyllis’s name on it. He decided to look further into things and wrote down her name, thinking maybe she could be his sponsor too. The two were connected and he began sending her messages once or twice a week, which is now a daily occurrence.
Leominster resident Phyllis Maston invited some friends to a surprise birthday party for her ‘adopted’ son from Haiti, Dieusson Louis, a memorable experience for all of them. (COURTESY PHYLLIS MASTON)
Phyllis said her dear friend and adopted son has kept her in his prayers over the years during difficult times, including when her son Ken had surgery, and she believes that “God has definitely heard them.”
“Dieusson has been a real comfort,” Phyllis said of the young man she calls her “prayer warrior.”
She has always been there for him too and has tried to give him hope during dark times. When he turned 18, his one wish was to be the first one in his family to go to college, so Phyllis offered to sponsor him financially by paying for his four years of school.
“It was a great achievement for him and built up his self-confidence,” she said.
Unfortunately, after he graduated from college, he was unable to get a job in Haiti, so he decided to go to the Dominican Republic — but there was nothing available in his field there either. Dieusson took a job as a driver and met “a wonderful man” from Florida who sponsored him to come to America.
“Dieusson prayed all of his life to come to America,” Phyllis said of his dream coming true.
After the required amount of time, Dieusson received his green card and lived in Florida with his sponsor for a few months before moving to New Jersey, where he currently lives with his sister and a cousin. He works as a CNA in a nursing home and recorded one of his patients sending a message to Phyllis — “You’ve done a wonderful job raising your beautiful son, Dieusson is so kind, helpful, and caring” the woman said.
That made Phyllis chuckle because although he is not her blood relative Dieusson has always called her mom — and she has been more than happy to take on that role in his life. After she and her life partner, Richard Riel, who Dieusson calls dad, picked him up at the bus station for their January gathering they offered him some photos from a recent cruise they had been on.
“When we asked Dieusson to choose one, he took ten and said was going to use them as wallpaper in his room,” said Phyllis, who has also lived in Fitchburg and Westminster. “He has wonderful sense of humor, and we all had a great laugh over it.”
She expressed that she is grateful for her life partner Richard and her son Ken “for their support and openness” with her special relationship with Dieusson, which became even more apparent during their visit. Phyllis disclosed that when they were chatting with each other face to face, she was surprised to learn that Dieusson has saved all their messages and social media pictures for the past 12 years.
“He is remarkable. I had no idea how deep his love was for me,” she said.
The first morning he was at her home, he put on Haitian music and danced with his hands lifted praising God for his goodness, saying “This is the way I start my day.” That evening he enjoyed a delicious home-cooked dinner followed by the special birthday cake and a warm flannel shirt Phyllis gave him as a present.
“He had no idea of blowing out the candles and making a wish,” Phyllis said. “He couldn’t believe it and couldn’t wait to get on the phone and share this experience with his friends in Haiti. It was a wonderful experience.”
One the second day of his visit some of Phyllis’s friends who have also sponsored Haitian children gathered for a surprise birthday party for Dieusson, complete with a second birthday cake.
“He said ‘I never had a birthday cake in all my life and now I’ve two cakes’ and it was a joy to him to make new friends,” Phyllis said. “This man is so appreciative for all that was done for him. We never know what our acts of kindness can do to help another person.”
Dieusson Louis, right, and Richard Riel, the Haitian man’s adopted mother’s life partner at her home in Leominster. (COURTESY PHYLLIS MASTON)
Dieusson’s name means God’s son and he speaks multiple languages — French based Haitian Creole, English, and Spanish. He said that meeting Phyllis, who he said is “someone I adore for what she has done for me,” was an incredible experience.
“I was in Haiti, and she always gave me strength. Even though I was stressed she was always there for me,” he said. “I always follow everything she does since she posts photos on Facebook. I always save them, and I always talk to her and tell her thank you.”
He said that being with her on his birthday “made me happiest” — and that being welcomed into her home and her circle of friends was incredibly special for him.
“She made me feel at ease like we had met before, despite all the bad news she heard about my country, the way people treat their own brothers badly, she trusted me,” said Dieusson, adding that when he has a child one day, he plans to name it after her. “That made me very happy, and I promised her I will always love her. I feel happy because I have this mother.”
Their bond was strong before but it’s even stronger now. They text back and forth daily, sending words of support and sharing photos, and have plans to celebrate Phyllis’s birthday in June together.
Dieusson is going to continue his education and become an LPN and then a registered nurse. The way that she talks about him, it’s clear that Phyllis is very proud of him and “his determination to get ahead.”
“He is a very caring and passionate man, and he has really got the ambition to make something of himself,” she said of her adopted son. “He feels that with a lot of hard work, America is a country of opportunity. When he talks about his life in Haiti, he begins to tear up. The government in Haiti takes everything…and they can barely survive.
“Dieusson is here and can’t thank God enough because he feels so very blessed,” she said. “He said, ‘God and Phyllis helped me to get from the bottom to the top.’ Dieusson is such a great example because he appreciates everything he has, and he believes he lives in such a wonderful country and takes nothing for granted. He is so special and always tells me ‘I can’t thank you enough.’”
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67c441f098dc46ebaf3972e3a4a2596e&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sentinelandenterprise.com%2F2025%2F03%2F02%2Fwe-never-know-what-our-acts-of-kindness-can-do%2F&c=17398977378289232352&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2025-03-01 21:26:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
