A Waveland Memory

It has been 4 weeks since I left Waveland and many of the memories live in my mind as if it were just yesterday. I keep track of the progress on the MSNBC-Rising From The Ruins site and also the Sun Herald. It is so hard to tell from a distance if the progress is significant or it is still a daily struggle for those in the area.
One story that I heard while in Waveland weighs heavily on my heart. Loretta Thomas is a secretary at Waveland Elementary. Like so many families in the area, not only did she lose her home but her parents lost theirs as well. She told me that her father and mother were both very poor growing up and did not finish high school, both quitting at the age of 14 to go work. Her dad went back and got his GED and spent his whole life as a house painter. He always managed to provide for his family and when he had enough, he bought a small home for them. While working at many new home construction sites, they would always have leftover materials which he would ask if he could take with him. As the materials came together, he would build another room onto their small home to make his family more comfortable. The home was still standing but has had to be gutted. Speaking softly, Loretta told me "It was like looking into his soul when they tore out the walls". I sat quietly as she described how she and her husband moved her parents into the small FEMA trailer with them so that they could care for her dad. "He has alzheimer's and cancer" she explained. "He knows he is dying and wants nothing more than to die in the front room of the home he built..... but we don't have the money to rebuild and the SBA hasn't come through with a check yet." I couldn't believe how heartbreaking her story was. For several days I had passed her smiling face and cheerful greetings with no clue to the anguish she was expereincing. It made me wonder how many other stories like this were hidden behind the every day masks of the people all along the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina. I realized as I sat there that this is the real face of this disaster and the unfortunate truth is that even in this small town, Loretta's story is a common one. Maybe they don't have an elderly parent with a terminal illness, but there is another hardship involved. Maybe they are handicapped living in a FEMA trailer, maybe they lost their life long partner to the storm surge, maybe they were just beginning to live out their golden years in a house that was bought and paid for and had minimal insurance, now it's gone. So many stories, all so sad. I really believe that what will sustain our neighbors in need is the compassion, assistance, and support of those of us outside the area. We really need to keep a spotlight on the Gulf Coast to help them recover and the only way to make that happen is through word of mouth. The media's nortoriusly short attention span has run it's course so many people believe that everything is OK. I know that it is draining to be reminded of the hardships that are faced by those in Louisiana, Mississippi, & Alabama but our country has never faced a disaster of this magnitude and the needs will continue for quite a while now. So next time you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed and believe you can't give another dime or ounce of energy.... think about Loretta and the thousands of others like her, who's daily routine is filled with enough burden and hardship to last a lifetime.