Feb 10, 2010 9:23:58 AM

Worcester State track and field student-athlete Rose Mathieu was in Haiti on January 12, visiting family members in Port-au-Prince when the devastating earthquake struck.

After grabbing her infant nephew and then seeking shelter with her brother and sister in a doorway, Mathieu thought that the quake lasted "a lifetime" – though in fact that first 7.0-magnitude shock lasted less than a minute.

The real shock came moments later, after stepping into the street and learning that Mathieu's sister's home and a nearby prayer house were the only structures in the neighborhood left standing.

Mathieu, a freshman sprinter and jumper at Worcester State who was born in Haiti but has lived in the United States since she was a child, recalls her experiences during the next few days on the school's athletics Web site. After reuniting with a cousin who briefly was feared lost in the collapse of a school, the family sought shelter on higher ground, away from the city's harbor.

"We slept that night next to complete strangers," she said. "Everyone was out in the street where we were. People also seemed to have come out of the rubble with sheets so they could use them as blankets. The next morning there were other people across the street who were covered with sheets."

Family members ultimately would find refuge in a relative's home outside Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, Mathieu returned to the house where she had survived the quake to retrieve her passport and belongings, then walked barefooted with her brother across the city, seeking help from the American embassy to return home.

"The city was completely flattened and there was a lot of destruction," she said. "There were hundreds of dead bodies everywhere, and we passed a lot of people in the streets in need of medical attention."

At the embassy, she was cleared to travel, then flew to the Dominican Republic, where she stayed two days before returning to Massachusetts.

Mathieu said she returned from Haiti with a new perspective on the meaning of life.

"I now understand more about what I want in life," she said. "Material things are nothing because they can be gone in 30 seconds."