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

Chika’s spirit plays a favorite game with Albom called “Finding Chika,” in which Chika hides and Albom pretends she is lost until she pops out again. Albom looks around the room and finds Chika hiding under a blanket. Then she sits on his office chair, urging him to write the next lesson, “Time Changes.”

Albom remembers when Chika first came to live with him and Janine. They were already in their fifties and set in their habits and lifestyle. Having Chika come to stay changed everything. Albom changed the way he spent his time, particularly because Chika had her own pace. She took her time with life and always slowed down to observe and relish each moment, while Albom was always rushing to complete one task and move onto the next. Being forced to slow down and devote his time to someone else altered Albom’s behavior and self-perception and made him more aware of how precious time is. He asserts that time given unquestioningly to someone else is the greatest gift “because you can never get it back” (78). Shortly after her arrival, Chika began radiation treatments.

Albom returned to Haiti in July 2015 to check on the mission. The children surrounded him upon his arrival, asking about when Chika would return and what her life was like. They had even saved her bed for her. Albom gave the children a message Chika wrote about having fun and missing everyone, and one girl asked Albom if she could go to America next. Albom told her now is not the time, and she wondered why: “I don’t have a mother, either” (80).

In the present, Albom studies a framed piece of paper on his desk, on which Chika wrote what she wanted to be when she grew up: big. Albom wonders why God could not give Chika what she asked for. He recalls when Chika began radiation treatments. She lost some of her hair, and a medication for inflammation gave her a fierce appetite and caused her to gain a great deal of weight. By the time the six weeks of radiation were over, the tumor shrank by 25%, and Albom and Janine hoped that Chika would be the first person to beat the disease.

Albom recalls that Chika used to love to dress up, sometimes in multiple outfits at once and often in Janine’s shoes. He remembers wiping her face one day and finding lip gloss there.

Chika’s ghost appears behind Albom, startling him and making her laugh. She asks if they can play the piano together. Albom recalls telling her not to bang so hard on the piano when she was alive. He took her to a jazz musician who seemed to understand her idea of music and played along with her, showing Albom that “everything in this world is music if you can hear it” (87). He stopped telling Chika how to play after that. In the present, they play “Jingle Bells” together and laugh as Chika’s spirit argues about the song’s lyrics.

Albom recalls that when he took Chika to Disneyland, the first thing that delighted her was a duck swimming in a pond by the castle. It was not the rides nor the shops but a living animal that made her yell with joy. Being with Chika reignited a lost spark in Albom—a sense of wonder for the world that all children seem to have and impart to their parents. Albom remembers how Chika marveled at the world around her and took such pleasure in simple acts like playing in the snow or finding a new flower to smell. He remembers how eager she was to share these discoveries with him. All the while, Albom worried about the doctors’ warnings that Chika’s tumor would likely start growing again. The Alboms knew other families who were dealing with DIPG, including that of a child named Chad Carr, all of whom eventually had to accept that their child would die. Albom wondered when he would have to accept the same fact.

One night Chika asked about bravery and God’s powers. She noted that God created the universe and asked whether he protects the things he created.

Albom acknowledges that he has known and loved many people who were diagnosed with and died from cancer, but none of it prepared him for a stage-four tumor in a small child. In Michigan, he and Janine met a doctor whose focus was finding a cure for DIPG. He suggested Chika undergo a risky treatment that involved sending cancer medication directly to the tumor via a tube inserted into her brain. Hopeful, Albom, Janine, and Chika flew to New York for the treatment.

Albom remembers Chika singing “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. When Chika sang, “a email deer” (98), Janine corrected her, but Chika argued that she could sing it however she wanted.

Albom writes an ode to Chika’s voice. He marvels at its complexity and how it acted as a “weather vane” for her moods and thoughts. Chika’s voice could be loud or quiet, soft or stern, scratchy or smooth. One of the things that Albom misses about her most is that she was a great singer. He recalls a man in New York remarking on the sweetness in the voice of Albom’s “daughter.” Hearing her referred to as his daughter had a strong effect on Albom.

Chika’s spirit tells Albom that she didn’t like New York because of the treatment she endured there, but Albom reminds her that she loved the lights in Times Square and the giant toy store they visited. He remembers the doctor asking him why he wanted to help Chika if she was not his daughter. Albom answered that he did not see any other option. The night before Chika’s procedure, Albom understood that there was a chance she could die and studied her face, committing it to memory. Chika had to lie in bed with the catheter tube inserted in her brain for 12 hours, exposed to hazardous levels of radiation while Albom and Janine slept behind a leaded wall to stay by her side through the night.