Thank You

lettynola — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:26:44 -0500

Thank you Laurie so so much.

Letty

Letty, thinking of you and following along.

lauriewrites — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:58:30 -0500

I have just been a visitor several times since Katrina, but I love New Orleans and have been forever changed by sharing even tangentially in the experiences of this city both before and since Katrina. I am so angry on your behalf that this is happening again...and wondered last night, as you wrote, how much can people take?

I too am praying for a big miss for any and every city on our coast and hope your family keeps us posted on your experience.

All the best - Laurie

Thank you from NOLA

lettynola — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:26:37 -0500

Thank you Gena. Your kinds words mean a lot tonight.

Letty NOLA

Thank You

lettynola — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:46:08 -0500

Thank you all so much for your support. I hope blue skies bring very little damage to NOLA. Take care-Letty NOLA

www.lettynola.com

Peace Be Upon You and Your Community

Gena Haskett — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:15:01 -0500

I can't imagining facing that kind of destruction not once but twice.

NOLA's got serious heart to be willing to put up with that threat. My prayers and wishes are that it evaporates in to the ocean.

Stay as safe as you can.

Gena - Out On The Stoop

Praying For A Miss-by Letty NOLA

lettynola — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:53:27 -0500

So, I'm sitting in a hotel room on the Panhandle. My son and husband are catching up on some well deserved sleep, as I was until the dog woke me. We are all holed up waiting on the effects of Gustav. It is cloudy, the water is choppy and the wind bands are starting to move in. It will be bad enough here to scare us, which is what scares me about conditions back home, but completely safe. This hotel has ridden out 4 major hurricanes and no one is worried. Believe me, we've checked! The lobby is basically a buzzing mini NOLA. I've already run into several acquaintances or friends of friends. The tensions are very, very high.

The saddest part for me to witness in the last few days though, is the weakness I'm beginning to see in my husbands and many husbands/dads eyes. Although, my husband would never admit it, I see the strain and the worry. I catch him dazing off, distracted and I know what he's thinking. He's thinking...."not again".

He's worked so hard the past year. Work, along with school, has made for some very long hours. Regardless of difficulties post-Katrina, he has persevered....like a workhorse. He is relentless in ethic and self discipline, characteristics I've always hoped our son would inherit. The past 3 days have not been that same person though. There has been a "crack" or slight insight into "how much a man can take". He's quiet and slightly withdrawn and looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

I'm praying for a miss. I'm praying that Mother Nature has mercy on NOLA and gives us more time. More time to fix what Katrina and years before broke. We're battling Gustav with an injured roster. And although our officials and leaders have performed beautifully, our people are hurting and tired.

We ran into another father of 4 with his wife, in our overnight stay yesterday around 2am. Just checking in at a random hotel lobby in Daphne, AL, due to the extreme fatigue of driving in the Exodus that was New Orleans last night. He said that he had lost his business in Katrina along with his house. Had built it all back up to be slapped in the face with this. He and my husband joked that we were all going to move to Seaside and get jobs as cabana boys at the resorts, and to "!@## this mess" or having to do it again. They both laughed, but a sort of tired and nervous laugh that made me think, they weren't half kidding.

I've already prepared myself for the worst, because that's all you can do. I know what my home looks like with water up to the door. I know how to bounce back from that. But do I want to. I would give anything to be able to drop my son at his very 1st day of preschool Tuesday and then have lunch with him at Cafe Rani in celebration, or to be blogging about what Loeffler Randall boots to buy this Fall. My heart aches for our wonderful playgroup of NOLA Moms that has formed since he was 6 months old. What I would give to have a scheduled day at Daneel for the kids to run and play, and us Moms to "chew the fat" and exchange notes or gossip just a little.

I've always wanted my son to have what I didn't. I wanted him to have roots in a city, with friends he'd known since birth and live in the same house for the majority of his childhood. Although unrealistic probably, my husband and I have worked very hard in giving him that and he has that thus far. We love our city, we love our friends and we love the life we have made in New Orleans for us and our family. But just like every family I know from New Orleans, tonight we are thinking to ourselves (yet not voicing aloud yet), 'how much is too much?'. I'm not sure I can bring myself to put my son through what we went through in the aftermaths of Katrina. There are many children in New Orleans who are still dealing with the trauma of that event and who had to be evacuated days before Gustav even came close, due to the severe and extreme anxiety beginning to set in. Officials advised to just get them out, let them play and let them forget for a little while.

So I guess that's how we arrived here. My son can play, there's a pool inside and out, he can put-put, he can go to the playground and he can watch golf with his father on T.V. We can keep this as normal as we can for him, all along knowing that he must be picking up on some signs. My husbands anxiety, my short temper, the tensions in the hotel......all which are real and true. It IS tense tonight. No one is saying what they are thinking and you can see it building in their eyes and in their demeanor. You can see the exhaustion and the hurt. Hurt, because they have been punished for trying to love a city too much. A city that gets a grip on you so tight, that you risk life and limb to live there. A culture so rich and so warm, you live in FEMA trailers in your driveway, long after your home is gone, so you can still have a piece of it. Call it stupid or blind love, I don't know. But at what point do the bruises start to show, the scars don't heal and enough is enough. I know many friends and families from NOLA who are asking themselves that very same question tonight.

Still praying for a miss
Letty NOLA

BlogHer - Praying For A Miss-by Letty NOLA - Comments

Thank You

Letty, thinking of you and following along.

Thank you from NOLA

Thank You

Peace Be Upon You and Your Community

Praying For A Miss-by Letty NOLA