Tuesday- St. Bernard's Project

Today, I and four others went to St. Bernard's Parish and volunteered at St. Bernard's Project. We were told that we would be helping an 87 year old woman named Aunt Sally (no last name given) to repaint the inside walls of her house. We arrived to find Aunt Sally already vigorously at work with a roller brush, applying primer to her once and future living room. Aunt Sally did not seem or act 87 years old; she not only looked 65, but stood by our sides for nearly the entire morning and afternoon, lugging paint buckets, fetching sodas and cookies for us, and amusing us with her stories of slot machine magic, running after the recent Mardi Gras floats, throwing cabbages at passersby, and catching wooden nickels to turn in for pickled pork at the only supermarket for miles around. After a coat of primer, we took a break on the steps with Aunt Sally and she told us about her family's history in the parish. Her nephew, Gary, also stopped by and filled in many of the following details.

Aunt Sally's once and future home is flanked by Victor Street, Jackson Street and Lloyd's Avenue. Her daddy's name was Victor, her uncle's name was Lloyd, and her family name is Jackson. She grew up in that exact location when the land her once and future home stands on was farmland owned by her kin. They sold part of the land to the parish to be developed, but her entire family occupied homes in the neighborhood. Sally's family and their homes withstood Hurricane Betsy in 1965, when St. Bernard's Parish did not sustain significant flooding. However, when Katrina and Rita hit in 2005, the region was inundated by water, reaching up to twenty feet in spots, including the local Home Depot, where all that was visible above water was the roof of the massive warehouses.

Aunt Sally and all of her relatives were able to escape unscathed from their homes, but watched the TV in agony as their homes were destroyed by flood damage. There was no question in the minds of this family that they would return to live here once again, as their family had in that very spot for five to six generations. Gary was able to sneak back to the area past the parish police to begin the rebuilding of his home on September 15, 2005; he has not rested a single day since, except for when he occasionally throws out his back and is laid up for weeks at a time.

As we lay the second coat of primer, Aunt Sally followed behind us, occasionally retracing our paint strokes. I realized how meaningful this experience was for her, as she lived two blocks away in a FEMA trailer and saw in the course of a day, her living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom walls progress from a sheet rock shell to something that resembled its former state. During our lunch break, she described the beautiful rose bushes that had surrounded her house and were washed away by the flood; we secretly conspired to go to the formerly submarine Home Depot to replace two of her bushes, and give her a token to remember us by.

When we presented them to her, she responded with what seemed like anger: "You shouldn't have!! Really you shouldn't have!" She gave us all big bear hugs, inviting us to return whenever we come back. As we drove away, she began to cry, and so did we. Aunt Sally... welcome home.