Looking in the Rear View Mirror

Yesterday I kept thinking that there was a reason I should remember the date.  August 29.  It seemed important.  But I couldn't remember why.  It flitted in and out of my mind all day.  And it was only when I awoke this morning, that I remembered wakening on another August 30 to a world gone utterly awry:  Hurricane Katrina.  It was 12 years ago yesterday.

Given the dreadful headlines currently in the news about the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, I suppose that I didn't want to recall.  Hurricanes aren't over when the winds die down and the rain clouds move off.  Clearing weather is only the beginning because the aftermath goes on for years.  Hurricanes.....you can repair and rebuild and restock but things can never go back to the way they were. 

It's heartbreaking in a way that you just can't explain.  And the painful memories stay with you forever. 

There's one that haunts me particularly, and it's an aftermath story that has little to do with Katrina.  One of the groups of people who came to help with rebuilding were Amish, and I spent awhile one day talking to a mother and her quiet daughter (a pretty little girl in a hand-knit lavender sweater).  A year later, their town would be in the news, too:  Nickel Mines.  When I think of that, I still cannot help crying all over again.  I wonder about the fate of that gentle child whose name I never learned.  The horror of Nickel Mines wasn't due to the whims of the weather but a mad man who destroyed with malice and without reason.  It is impossible to understand.

I honestly try not to dwell on Katrina memories.  They are too hard, too hurtful.  And I try not to think about how the stress shortened my mother's life.  The scars are still here on the land and on the people who lived through it.  I want instead to remember the kindness of those who came to help.

Katrina devastated Mississippi.  But Mississippians are still here, and we still love this place that the news media and the world seems to despise.  It's still home.  I'm not going anywhere.

Remembering.
Life is good.