37. A House is Not a Home

I had seen the photos and heard the stories but it really didn’t hit me until I walked up on it. A blue tarp still covered the carport, construction debris strewn about and upon entering… The hurricane had taken the roof and the water poured from above bringing the ceiling and insulation down. The wind was so fierce that it sandblasted furniture down to the bare wood. A large branch had penetrated the dinning room window and the hurricane just moved right on thru the house like a bull in a china shop destroying most of their possessions, treasured photos and keepsakes.

I had never personally known anyone that had been effected by a hurricane. We see these events unfold on TV, the evening news, and assume they just clean up and move on with their lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I had flown in, there were still blue tarps scattered across the city. This alters lives on a level most don’t have a frame of reference for. I did. It was like the fire in 1978. The mementos of ones life, ones history is erased and all that are left are the memories tainted by the destruction. They had to live weeks without electricity and water, relying on a generator that they had to continually seek fuel for. And so did hundreds of thousand of other residents. They all needed the very limited resources that were becoming harder and harder to come by. Survival was the priority in those first few weeks. Not one of my numerous family in Louisiana went untouched. They all lost electricity, had extensive flooding and destruction. They took it in stride, assessed and moved forward. I come from hardy and resilient stock.

Most had evacuated north, out of state for the hurricanes landfall but came back as soon as they could to protect and secure their property. After the initial event and those first few weeks, the waiting for insurance companies, adjusters and then contactors began. They were in line with several hundred thousand of their neighbors. This is not a quick recovery and is still ongoing. I’ll never think about hurricanes the same again or those who have to endure them.

Semper Paratus

My brother, Michael, is the epitome of “being prepared” and his family were better stocked than many for this event. Generator, gas, window AC units, food and water. They had been wiped out by Katrina, exactly 16 years to the day that Ida made landfall. After Katrina they didn’t return from Jackson for almost a year. They would travel back on weekends to work on the house over that year. Packing the entire family, a dog with new litter of puppies, twin toddlers and a new born back and forth. On top of taking care of my very young twin nieces, my nephew had been born only a few days before Katrina hit. Michelle does not know how to give up or falter. She is one of the strongest and unwavering women I know. I have been a front row observer of this tenacity time and time again over the last few years. She handled this latest event with the same courage and grace, making a home for her family regardless of the circumstances or actual physical environment.

This is the “Home” I walked into a few weeks ago.

They didn’t wait around for contractors. The family came from near and far to assist when they could. They gutted the house over several months. Notice the broom. Michelle has always kept a very neat and clean house so it was no surprise that even while living like this, it is clean and in as much order as one could expect given the circumstances. She amazes me!

Lemonade Masters

They are making the best of a worst case scenario, choosing to look at this as an opportunity disguised as tragedy. Moving walls, creating a space that better reflects their ever growing and changing family. The only place to sit is around that table you see in the background. Damaged by the storm, now covered by a cheap table cloth and the odds and ends of “living”. Around that table love abounds.

A house is not a home. A home is not floors, walls or a roof. That’s a house. A home is the hearts that gather around a table, listening to music, cracking up and just enjoying each others presence. I would sit here each evening, basking in the love that our family has for each other. Home, an idea, a state of mind, a beautiful manifestation that my family truly embraces and exemplifies. I love this home and all within it.

“And they made their house from a tool shed
Grandaddy rolled out on two logs
And they built walls all around it
And they made that house a home

And they taught us ’bout good living
And taught us right from wrong
Lord, there’ll never be another place
In this world that I’ll call home”

Alan Jackson “Home”