And so I was really looking forward to seeing my friend Heather this morning. Not only did I know that she and her three kids would be in need of things themselves -- but I also know that she is a good contact for the Long Beach/Pass Christian area and can get us in touch with families in need there. Besides -- I haven't seen her in ages and after several months of agonizing worry over her whereabouts (my mother was even checking the lists of the dead for me since I couldn't bear to do it myself...) it's about time for a good visit.
Heather: "Great - first you put my name on every 'Missing-presumed dead" list on the internet.. Now you want to take my picture."Just about the time that Heather arrived this morning -- the phone started ringing. We had several calls from folks who had seen our little Operation Vanessa blurb in the church bulletin and a couple calls from those in neighborhoods we had canvassed with flyers last week. All of these lives in varying states of chaos... but that's what we all have in common these days: the chaos. At least there's something. There are plenty of lists -- lots of requests for sheets and still the blankets. (I keep hearing that the FEMA trailers can get dreadfully cold.) The most requested item - second only to sheets - would have to be pots and pans or just about anything for the kitchen. But more than the lists are the stories. Everybody has a story to tell and I find it absolutely amazing how people call as total strangers and by the time we hang up we feel like friends -- laughing and trying to reassure one another.
Heather left armed with blankets for the kids and the number for Christian Aid Ministries. My mother and I had begged her to call them for help with her roof and her sheetrock. Pray that she will. She's a single mother with three small children and she works every day cleaning houses to support them. Obviously, there was a long period of time after Katrina when she was unable to work -- most of the houses she used to clean were all flattened. It was only a couple of years ago now when she called to announce that she was buying a house -- her own house in her own name. She was so thrilled. It was an old home just a couple blocks off the beach and I remember it was painted an unmistakable blue when I saw it. The inside was adorable -- Heather's artistic flair and her mother's influence with her background in interior design made for a truly lovely home. Her own artwork dotted the walls and children were everywhere. It was such a comfortable place. It is hard for me to imagine it now - even as Heather describes it in detail... even after I have seen so many just like it. Everything is gone except the stud walls and, of course, the mold.
Aurora & Yvonne played like long-lost sisters.
Just a little while ago - I had a moment to return a phone call that I missed today. It was to a lady named Alice who had gotten my number from the church bulletin. She said she is a parishioner from St. Peter the Apostle -- the church that looked like a giant kicked it a few times before stepping on it the day after Katrina. Today it is a slab. Alice and I talked for almost an hour about what had happened to us. "Everything is all messed up," she said. "I have never seen anything like it - nothing is right." She said that all she managed to salvage was the pictures that were hanging on her walls. Twenty-two years of work every day and she has nothing to show for it. Her good credit is a curse when FEMA says she can afford a loan. Now she and her husband have to over-extend themselves just to survive simply because they have worked their entire lives to avoid exactly that. They are trying to fix their home themselves -- at night and on the weekends when they aren't at work.. and are trying to spread the $6000 they got for roof damage out enough to pay for the damage the 27 inches of Katrina water did to their home. "It looks pretty good on the outside," she laughed. "Just don't open the door." Alice's biggest wish right now is a set of good clean sheets... That and a few million prayers that Governor Barbour will 'do right by' those who have been completely passed over by the system thus far.
Heather left armed with blankets for the kids and the number for Christian Aid Ministries. My mother and I had begged her to call them for help with her roof and her sheetrock. Pray that she will. She's a single mother with three small children and she works every day cleaning houses to support them. Obviously, there was a long period of time after Katrina when she was unable to work -- most of the houses she used to clean were all flattened. It was only a couple of years ago now when she called to announce that she was buying a house -- her own house in her own name. She was so thrilled. It was an old home just a couple blocks off the beach and I remember it was painted an unmistakable blue when I saw it. The inside was adorable -- Heather's artistic flair and her mother's influence with her background in interior design made for a truly lovely home. Her own artwork dotted the walls and children were everywhere. It was such a comfortable place. It is hard for me to imagine it now - even as Heather describes it in detail... even after I have seen so many just like it. Everything is gone except the stud walls and, of course, the mold.
Aurora & Yvonne played like long-lost sisters.Just a little while ago - I had a moment to return a phone call that I missed today. It was to a lady named Alice who had gotten my number from the church bulletin. She said she is a parishioner from St. Peter the Apostle -- the church that looked like a giant kicked it a few times before stepping on it the day after Katrina. Today it is a slab. Alice and I talked for almost an hour about what had happened to us. "Everything is all messed up," she said. "I have never seen anything like it - nothing is right." She said that all she managed to salvage was the pictures that were hanging on her walls. Twenty-two years of work every day and she has nothing to show for it. Her good credit is a curse when FEMA says she can afford a loan. Now she and her husband have to over-extend themselves just to survive simply because they have worked their entire lives to avoid exactly that. They are trying to fix their home themselves -- at night and on the weekends when they aren't at work.. and are trying to spread the $6000 they got for roof damage out enough to pay for the damage the 27 inches of Katrina water did to their home. "It looks pretty good on the outside," she laughed. "Just don't open the door." Alice's biggest wish right now is a set of good clean sheets... That and a few million prayers that Governor Barbour will 'do right by' those who have been completely passed over by the system thus far.
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