49 pages • 1 hour read
Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family
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God
Content Warning: The source material and this guide include extensive discussion of terminal illness in a child.
God is a key motif in Albom’s memoir, and his decision-making throughout the memoir is rooted in his faith. Albom took over the orphanage and converted it into the Have Faith Haiti mission after he had an epiphany that it was part of God’s plan for him to be there. When Albom went down to Haiti to see the orphanage, he marveled at the way the children celebrated the introduction of running water “as if experiencing the Lord’s first rainstorm” (49). During these early days at the mission, Albom first truly understood The Wonder of Childhood and the impact that small acts could make on children. His faith gave him a context for his experience of the children in Haiti; they seemed closer to God and therefore more able to see the wonder in the world. This helped him feel that he could learn from the orphanage and could make a real difference there.
Albom describes seeing God in Chika many times. On one occasion, she started dancing at the mission during a prayer song: “I make a mental note. The praying did it. She’s in” (44). On another, Janine found her singing “No Longer a Slave” at the top of her lungs to God. Albom refers to God both in grateful terms and in angry terms throughout the story of Chika’s life. He states his belief that God kept Chika alive during the earthquake but also expresses anger at God for allowing Chika to experience DIPG and premature death. He stares at a piece of paper on which Chika wrote her only dream of one day being “big” and wonders why God could not give her what she asked for. Ultimately, Albom finds comfort in a rabbi’s statement that at least believing in God gave had someone to be angry at.
Medical Treatment for Terminal Illness
Medical treatment for terminal illness is a central motif in Finding Chika. Chika undergoes treatments that are difficult, expensive, painful, and dangerous. These treatments symbolize hope against all odds and play a significant role in the themes of Parenting and Familial Bonds and Sharing Time.
Through trying to help Chika, Albom and Janine learned about parenting as they took over the roles of mother and father in her life. Chika went through countless MRIs and blood tests, along with both conventional and unconventional treatments; at one point an IV port that became infected, nearly killing her. Hospitals and doctor’s offices are a constantly revolving setting in the memoir. The Alboms brought Chika to the United States with the hope that the country’s advanced medicine could cure her, but after over a year of treatment, they finally had to accept that Chika was going to die. When Chika was dying, Janine told her she could leave, demonstrating acceptance of her death’s inevitability and acknowledging the pain she had gone through during her treatment. Doing so was exceedingly difficult, particularly given the time, energy, and hope they spent on her treatment, but their parental love for her gave them the strength to be selfless.
Through Chika’s illness, Albom learned that sharing time is more valuable than keeping it to himself. The memoir recounts the Alboms’ efforts at extending Chika’s life; they devoted all their time to her care and medical treatment. Though Chika’s doctors told the Alboms she would not live more than four months, they were determined to change that, taking her all over the world in search of life-extending treatment. Albom spent most of his days and nights either caring for or worrying about Chika. Through everything, Chika demonstrated the wonder of childhood through her resilience, determination, and optimism. Writing the story of Chika’s life and death, too, was a sort of treatment for Albom’s grief, helping him to heal from the loss.
Numbers
Albom organizes his memoir around the number seven, which is the number of years that Chika lived. For example, the book includes seven lessons that Chika taught him. Albom ascribes a significance to this number, as though it were no coincidence that Chika’s life was filled with sevens. For example, she died on April 7. However, the most important number that Albom mentions is how long Chika lived past her initial prognosis. Though Chika was predicted to live only four months, she lived almost two more years. While her time was short, it was full, and her family worked hard to give her more time than expected.
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By Mitch Albom
