My regular visitors know that I'm originally from the Ms. Gulf coast and most of my family are still down there. I've been in touch with some of my relatives. In all of this, my grandma lost a brother, who drowned.
I've seen pictures of places that were near and dear to me and they are gone. I mean nothing but a slab left gone. People that are down there tell me that the pictures don't give the full impact of the destruction.
The pictures above and below are of the house where my biological dad lives. It was my maw maw and paw paws house that they built by hand in the 40's. The house holds some very good childhood memories for me. Even though my mom and Dennis divorced when I was a baby, I would go stay on weekends when I was a young child. Me and a cousin would climb the tree that's in the foreground on the left and wait on paw paw to come home from work so we could scare him. We'd stay up there for hours even after day light so we could scare him.
The left side of the house that looks like it was an open porch was actually closed in. We spent many a night staying up late watching old Boris Karloff Dracula movies with maw maw and paw paw. On Saturday and Sunday mornings we'd sit in front of the TV and watch the 3 Stooges and Popeye cartoons.
This is the front of the house. That's the front door laying inside, in the middle. Picture a TV on the far right side facing left. The door is laying on the couch, and my maw maw and paw paw's recliner used to be on the far left next to each other facing right. If we weren't on the couch, we would be laying on the floor in front of the TV. We didn't have much, but in the 1970's, we thought we had it all.
People have driven by and stopped to inquire about the knotty pine paneling that you can see on the front living room walls. It's tongue and groove boards with beveled cuts in each board. The entire inside of the house has it. It's beautiful wood. It's probably the most valuable part of the house now.
I hope everyone affected by this Hurricane can eventually get their lives back in order. I know it's 2005, I'm 700 miles away in TX with my own family in my own house, but seeing all the destruction of my beloved coast makes me feel like a 1o yr old sad little boy again. I had this feeling when my maw maw died. This old house is all I have to remind me of her.
5 comments:
Ahhh Paul,
I have no words except Im sorry.
Im with Heather...BIG HUGS....
Mom
Hey Paul, this is your wife, I just wanted to tell how much it meant to me for you to call me to say you were your were sorry this morning.
We both get so wrapped up in our jobs that we don't take time out to appreciate each other.
I am truly blessed to have you in my life. I love you
Debb
You have a great wife!!! Lucky you!
Mom
Thanks ladies. All of you are great.
We were lucky to sustain minimum damage-- compared to so many others-- from Hurricane Hugo, but the house two doors down from us was totally destroyed. I found a some school photos of that family's son in the marsh one day after the storm. I took them to the father who was standing in the yard surveying the damage and he waved me away in an angry manner. I'm not sure he saw/understood that I was trying to return a fragment of his family's history... I think he was completely overwhelmed and only able to see "total devastation". That was a sad time indeed. I know how you are feeling and it does take time to shake of something so dramatic and traumatic. I'm sorry to hear the sadness is shadowing you right now.
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