"We're the Lucky Ones"

J & B are looking very strongly about cutting and running from New Orleans. They still haven’t sat down and explained to their daughter L exactly what to expect with their little white house. And now they are thinking of moving to Lafayette.

All they keep telling her is that there is too much water to go back to their house. The water is over the first floor of most houses. There’s a very good chance that when the water recedes, there will be nothing left of their home except for a concrete slab.

I feel so bad for this family, for this little girl who has likely lost the only home she has ever known.

Yet B doesn’t want to hear any sobbing about it.

“We’re the lucky ones. We got out with our vehicle, our emergency papers, all our IDs, credit cards – even our Social Security cards and birth certificate, the titles to our van, to the house. We have our retirement we can cash in. There must be a million people who don’t have that.”

I’m just amazed and astounded at their resilience. I know that a house full of memories is simply a collection of things. I just don’t know how I’d react if my parents ever lost their home.

I wouldn’t know what to tell little L. She’s only five and she plays with D’s boys. I can hear their make-believe play all the time. The boys play in space-related themes: space stations, satellites, and the occasional moon and Mars missions. L plays with lots of house keeping and baby care themes. Sometimes a storm comes through and blows down her house, and shuttle lands nearby to pick up survivors and take them to a space station.