Going Home

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to live by the beach. Lexington, Kentucky only had one beach—Sin Te’s Wave pool off of New Circle Road—so when it came time to pick a university, beach location was first on my mind. I cracked open the college guide and searched for a pick that would please both my parents and me.

Newcomb College of Tulane University seemed to fit the bill. Strong Liberal Arts College. Good academic reputation. And most importantly--located next to Ponchartrain Beach. Or at least that’s what the guidebook said. Six months later, I arrived at Newcomb College in New Orleans, LA for my first day of school.

“Where’s the beach?” I asked my roommates.

“What beach?” was the frequent response, until a friendly Frat Boy agreed to drive the naïve freshman to Ponchartrain Beach.

I can’t remember Frat Boy’s name, but I do remember arriving at a body of water lapping onto a concrete shore. No beach. This was a lake with levees leading into the city. Disheartened, Frat Boy took me to Audubon Tavern where I drowned my disappointment in an order of cheese fries and a cold glass of underage beer.

And so it goes, I fell in love. With New Orleans. And with a man named Tommy. A New Orleans’s native, he introduced me to the city’s backstreets and best-kept secrets. We rode our bikes to the Lafayette Cemetery, ate shrimp po-boys from Domilise’s, and did the jitterbug at the Maple Leaf Bar.

As graduation approached, so did the end of our time together. While many of my friends were preparing their resumes, I bought a backpack and prepared to travel and live overseas. Tommy wasn’t coming with me--he belonged to New Orleans. One could easily say I left piece of my heart there.

So as the news progressed about Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans, that piece of my heart filled with sadness. Such a complicated and devastating tragedy, I can still barely understand what has taken place.

As a filmmaker, I am attracted and repelled by the media coverage (which is a whole different column on a not so gloomy day). And when I look at it as a mother, I am overwhelmed with the amount of courage and sacrifice I have seen.

Over 121 babies were evacuated to the Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, most of them without their mothers. How Lainie Breaux summoned up the strength to leave her four day old son Zachary can only be answered by a mother’s love: She had to leave her son in the hospital where he would get the best care and evacuate her older son Benjamin to higher ground. Lainie and Zachary were eventually reunited, thanks in part to the network of mothers who relayed messages that Zachary was in a hospital in Fort Worth.

It is almost enough to make me want to have another baby. Almost.

While I’m angry about the way New Orleans and its people were treated, my friend Betsy isn’t. She and her family were fortunate enough to evacuate to Baton Rouge where she is sharing her in-laws’ house with eight other people.

“What went wrong?” I asked her.

“I don’t want to waste any energy arguing over who is to blame. I just want the current situation fixed.” Her daughter Eliza was supposed to start pre-school full time last Monday as she headed back to work as a teacher. “I just want to go home.”

Having been displaced for only two days from the landslide, I know the emotion of “going home.” Fortunately though, I had the Laguna Beach community that gave support to my family and me. The sweatshirts from Hobie kept us warm, Annie’s warm beds gave us rest and generous offers from strangers filled our souls with hope.

The victims of Katrina must find their communities in different places.

“We are trying to be their home away from home,” Marilyn Fountain, Director of Community Relations for Star of Hope, told me. “I have seen children traumatized for being homeless. We are trying to provide the comfort that they need-provide them with the basics and the emotional support, too. We need to let them know that they are not alone in their recovery.”

Star of Hope (www.sohmission.org) is one of the few aid organizations that is accepting in-kind donations for Katrina’s victims. Please contact their hotline at tel. (713)226-5499 for up to date information.

Christine can be reached at cfugate2000@yahoo.com.