Brothers Roodly (l.), 10, and Kevin Darius, 9, in Haiti home, write thank-you letter to Queens benefactor Maryse Georges.
CARREFOUR, HAITI - At least twice a year, brothers Roodly and Kevin Darius come home from school to discover a care package sent to them all the way from Queens.
Inside they find T-shirts, jeans, shoes and school supplies sent from a woman they have never met but cannot imagine living without.
"I would like to say thank you to her for everything she has done for us," the older of the two brothers, Roodly, 10, said last week as he stood outside his two-room family home in the town of Carrefour, just outside Port-au-Prince.
He was wearing a sleeveless sports jersey and shorts, while his brother, Darius, 9, had opted for his favorite Spider-Man T-shirt - gifts from Maryse Georges and her family in Forest Hills.
"Without her, I don't know what I would do," their mother, Therese Jules, 42, said. "Maryse really is the mother of the children. I pray for her every day because she's really helped me with them."
Georges, who is Haitian-American, has been providing financial support to Jules and her two boys for the past decade.
Georges' mother took in Jules and her two sisters as teenagers when she lived in Haiti.
When Georges heard that one of the three was going to have a child of her own, she decided it was time to do her part.
"I decided to start looking after that new family myself," said Georges, 63, who works for the city Health Department.
"I really want them to have the best that they can have. That's what I can do for Haiti."
Since the children were born, Georges has deposited $100 a month in the family's bank account, sent two or three packages full of supplies each year and covered the family's rent.
Some of the money is used to send the boys to a good school in Carrefour. Their mother ensures they study hard, attend church and write thank-you letters to their benefactor.
When the earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, a panic-stricken Georges spent nearly a week trying to reach her long-distance adopted family.
Eventually she heard Jules' voice on the other end of the line.
"I must have made 100 calls," Georges said. "By chance, the call finally went through. Therese told me they had become homeless."
Georges helped the family find a temporary tent shelter. Last Christmas, she, her husband and her two grown kids decided to forgo presents so Jules and the two boys could move to a more stable home, and pay one year's rent - about $700, double what they were charged before the quake.
"Maryse has a good heart," Jules said, sitting around the small table in her new, modest home. "She calls us all the time for news on the children, and they speak about her all the time. They really want to meet her."
Georges also hopes to meet the boys she considers family soon. For all her generosity, she only has one request: "I'm trying to give Haiti two educated individuals who can serve the country," she explained.
"The only thing I want from them is that when the boys are older, they do the same for another child."
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