1 Yr Ago ... .Pt 1

I remember exactly what I was doing a year ago this week.   We had just brought my mother back home the Veterans Day weekend.  She had been staying with us since she had to evacuate for Hurricane Rita.    She wanted to go home so bad, she kept saying things couldn’t be that bad…..she wouldn’t watch the news….wouldn’t look at photos I tried to show her on the internet.  She didn’t want to see it….she just wanted to go home.  She was convinced that we just wouldn’t let her go home…she thought we were being mean to her.  I couldn’t change her mind, I tried ….but she wanted no part of it.  She wanted to be home and no amount of talking was gonna change her mind (and she wonders why I am so stubborn).    It was so hard to see her upset and I couldn’t do anything.   She had been away from home for 2 months…and she was tired.    When I tried to explain to her that they (Public Officials) didn’t want folks back with health problems because there were no hospitals, no healthcare…and barely stores open she would just get these tears in her eyes and walk away….she wouldn’t listen to me.  I had been in contact with My Aunt and Uncle and knew folks were slowly going back.  Power had been fixed in certain parts of town, it would go down during the day at times….but they were making progress.   Wal-mart was open….there were no frozen foods or bread…but they had some groceries.   Water was on…but you still had to boil it….it was a lovely orange color according to my Aunt.    I tried to convince mom to stay till Thanksgiving at least….we hadn’t had Thanksgiving together in awhile….she agreed…but you could tell her heart wasn’t in it.   She missed home.     What broke my heart and changed my mind…was coming home from work and finding her in my sons room (she took his room and he had was on a cot in the backroom) and she was quietly crying….and looking at little box she had brought with her.   I sat down on the bed beside her and asked if she was ok….she didn’t answer me….but she handed me this little box.   Inside wrapped in cotton was her mother’s ring my daddy and I bought her one Christmas, a cross that I wore as a baby, a bracelet that belonged to her sister that had passed away the year before, and the pen my daddy had gotten when he retired from Kroger.   Everything that was precious to her was in a little jewelry box.   I asked her why she had all this….she said when My Aunt and Uncle told her that they had to get out she didn’t know if she would have a home to go back too, and she didn’t want to loose these that I would get them one day.   Well by this time I’m in tears and she looks at me with these pretty blue eyes and asks…is my trailer still there….all this time she hadn’t said a word, never asked about her house.  It hit me right then that no one had told her about her little trailer I felt like the worse daughter in the world.  Everyone had been so wrapped up in keeping her safe and comfortable that we forgot she couldn’t always hear us...we had told her it had been damaged but not how bad.  She looks me straight in the eye and says Please take me home……so of course we did.   The drive down was long 13 hrs one way into the heart of the damage that Katrina and Rita had done.   Once you got to McComb Mississippi you started seeing it…the bent trees and road signs, the big bond fires off in the distance burning….I don’t know what…and I can’t even begin to tell you what the smell was like.   We didn’t go thru New Orleans….I didn’t have the heart….I lived in N.O. for 2 yrs and I was like everyone else sitting in stunned disbelief watching those horrible images on TV…it broke my heart…At that time I still didn’t know where some of my friends were…but that is a story for another time.   It was amazing to me to see those little hotels on the side of the road filled up with families sitting out in the parking lots with picnic tables and laundry hung up between trees.  Going out of Lafayette the countryside looked bruised.  Debris still hung to some signs, and you could see where some road signs were completely gone.  Dirt still clung to signs and along the side of the road.   You started seeing the blue tarps about this time.   They dotted the landscape everywhere you looked.   It was late by the time we hit Lake Charles, so you really couldn’t tell how bad Rita had hit there…and we made it to my mom’s trailer in Sulphur around 3 am….it was still there….she was lucky, the skirting was gone…and there were holes in the sides where limbs had hit it….but it was still there.   My mom who had been so quiet during the whole ride suddenly came alive.   She started running around turning on lights…watering wilted flowers…she had forgotten that she had no electricity for over a month and a half…her clock showed 8 pm…it was actually 3 a.m….she didn’t realize until we told her she needed to get some rest.    The next morning we got up early, because we had to leave to get back home, but we took mom to get some groceries before we left.   I was amazed to see my home town…it looked like it had been thru a war…and this was almost 2 months later.  There were blue tarps everywhere…and I mean everywhere…most businesses had plywood on their windows as all the glass had been blown out.  If the business was open it had a plywood sign in front stating so.   Most businesses were still closed.   Huge 100 yr old pine trees lay flat on the ground.  Debris was pilled so high on the sides of the road you couldn’t even see into some yards.    It took your breath away.   My DH drove me around to see things and take some pictures.  I took a grand total of 7…I just couldn’t take anymore….