'God wanted us to be here': How a family from Puerto Rico made it to Cincinnati after Maria

A son from Puerto Rico had to sneak behind his mother's back to create a new life for them both in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Christopher Javier Negron made a plan for his life in middle school: He would graduate, head to high school and then study industrial electronics -- first at the University of Puerto Rico in Bayamon, next in Mayaguez.  "And that plan came crashing down," his mother, Jessica Rivera, said. "Just like the electricity poles and the trees." Hurricane Maria hit during Negron's first week of college. By the time classes resumed, the school still had no water and no electricity. The widespread damage and subsequent exodus of hurricane-affected Puerto Ricans doubled his mother's workload at both of the jobs she'd taken to support her son through college. During the day, she worked as a CT and MRI technician at a hospital; during the night, she drove cabs.  Negron knew neither of them could continue that way. Neither could the three elderly family members who depended on them. "So the next day," he said, "I was deciding, 'Should I stop studying and try to help my family? Or just continue studying?'" If he continued to study in Puerto Rico, what would he be studying for? Jobs that might not exist anymore? Months or years in the dark? If he quit and took a job that did not require a degree, would he be disappointing the family that had encouraged him to chase his dream?