SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lovensky Alexandre, a tiny boy with a hole in his heart, came to Sacramento from the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti.
The frail 7-year-old showed up in March with an eager grin and a will to live. In a little more than five weeks, he went from chattering in Creole to speaking in excited bursts of English, playing Wii games on a big-screen TV and devouring pizza.
He gleefully chucked a pitch at a River Cats game, where he was publicly honored as a story of courage and survival.
Now Lovensky and his mother, Roselene Ducelus, are back in Haiti. They returned May 12, 26 days after Lovensky underwent successful heart surgery at the Children's Center of Sacramento's Sutter Medical Center.
In Sacramento, he savored days in a spacious Elk Grove home with elegant furnishings and a wonderland of electronics.
In Haiti, he would move into a tent behind his cousin's single-room cinder-block house.
His experiences in Sacramento changed Lovensky. Going home would not be so easy.
Roselene Ducelus says Lovensky, the youngest of her four children, "was born sick."
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