And the stories

Today we sat around the Thanksgiving table talking about Katrina. Those of us who have not been here were talking about what little we know from TV, radio, and newspapers. Those who've lived though it listened as we tried to make sense of their reality. We all retell stories we've all heard before and know well and we all just say wow.

At one point Momoo, Philip's 91-year-old-grandma, said, "No matter how much or how little you have, it is a tragedy." Later she told me that all "this talk is for the birds. You have to go and see it."

Everyone is in shock. Momoo told me she wakes up in the night in disbelief. Today Sumner is lounging around Mema and Pop's house in a couple of very special PJs that Momoo sewed for him. Momoo told me that she started sewing the PJs before the storm. When she returned to her house and found them laying over a chair, she could not even remember who or what they were.

And it's not just the elderly. Everyone is in shock.

When we went to share dessert with some of Phil's cousin's the scene was much the same and very much different. Dessert was set out on the same buffet and it was good to see how much bigger the younger cousins have grown--a 13-year old in my memory is soon to drive (if he earns it, his mother adds) and a 10 year is now hitting puberty.

I was introduced to a friend of the host's who was joining us for the evening with, "This is Toby. She lost everything." Later, when a disbelieving-me asked Tody and her husband if they really lost everything, Toby and her husband told me that after the flood they each had four pairs of underwear, what they have taken with them for the evacuation. Toby's husband pointed to a little girl's rubber Croc shoes and told us he used to have a pair of those. Someone suggested that they probably could have survived the flood. He told us he saw one yellow shoe floating in his house, but he didn't search out the other one. This type of story is no longer extraordinary. Everyone has a story.

Philip's cousin Lauren and her husband David thought they'd made out fine. They live "across the river", which was spared by the flooding. But when they got to their house they found a big surprise. The roof of their house sustained damage and the ceilings in much of their house fell in. They can't live there for quite a while. Now David is living with his mother and Lauren and their three kids are spending a semster in Florida at David's sister's home. They have three weeks to go until they get to be together again. David's picked a book about Western Philosophy and read it, something he never had time to do before. They say their upbeat and seem that way.

Of course Momoo (and everyone else) says we are the lucky ones. We have resources/money/youth/energy to rebuild. Many just don't.

We are leaving at 9:30 AM tomorrow morning to tour the city.