- Date Of Birth: November 30, 1935
- Date Of Death: February 17, 2022
- State: New Jersey
Anne Marie Dabady, affectionately known to all as Manman, was born on November 30th, 1935, to Leblanc Gasset and Elaise Somerville in Leogane Haiti. After the death of her father at an early age her mother was forced to remove her from school and send her to live with her grandmother in the country.
During their time together they had six children. Their two sons went to be with the Lord at an early age. While raising their four daughters they would grow their family by adopting a daughter. Raising five girls in Port-au-Prince, Manman would sell anything she could to raise money so that her and her husband could send their girls to school. Determined to give her daughters opportunity for upward mobility, Manman formed partnerships and earned funds to immigrate each of her daughters to the United States.
In 1983, she immigrated to the United States where she and her husband would live with their second oldest daughter, Micheline, and her family. From these new headquarters Manman organized countless collections to send needed goods to Haiti. She supported merchants, funded the education of many, cared for widowed family members, and made strategic connections to develop her community both in Haiti and in the U.S.
Seeing the need in her community stateside, she started an in-house daycare service for Haitian families. This daycare quickly became a place where many found community.
She loved her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren deeply. She enjoyed relationship with each of them and prayed for them regularly. Manman suffered from various ailments during her last years. Despite her ailments, she did what she had always done, she built community even in her nursing home. Although Manman had always been religious, during the last seven years of her life she had a clear and rooted relationship with Jesus Christ. She noted the difference. She had no fear of death for she had lived and was ready to meet the Author of life.
On February 17, 2022, Manman would go to be with her Lord and Savior.
