Thanksgiving

This week will be 3 months since this fiasco started. Everything is good. Well almost everything.
I miss my family. I found out that the biggest thing that I lost during the past few months has been precious time with my family. I miss my Beautiful wife and my 3 children. I miss my Dog. I miss my Home. When a disaster like this happens I've learned that you go through stages.

First I was upset about all of the things that we lost in the storm. Things we can't ever get back. All of my childrens Disney Christmas ornaments; My wife's "ring bearers pillow" from our Wedding; Toys in Kindal and Ben's room that they will probably not miss but bring back precious Christmas morning memories for me; My wife's makeup; My Baby Girls blanket ; All of the furniture that my Mom left to me when she passed away a month prior to the storm. I could go on........but why. We will dearly miss all of these precious things.

And Then I got upset about all of the damage done to the City. I walked around in a daze. I can't believe that all of this pain and suffering is happening to our city. These things don't happen in the United States. We only see these things on the news. I walk for days and can't escape the poisonous waterlines on houses ; the blue tarps protecting homes from more damage ; thousands of refrigerators and appliances in front of every house; spray painted inventory lists on most houses ; abandoned flood marked cars everywhere ; the lack of artists and musicians in Jackson Square; Trees still on houses ; Again I could go on and on. You can take every disaster movie you've ever seen and multiply it by 100 times. You can't get over what you see, and you can't really explain it to anyone else. I love this city and my heart will always be here.....even if I can't be.

The third level of mourning came to me during this Thanksgiving. I came to New Orleans on this third trip to try and get work done on my house and to finalize some of the insurance stuff. I found myself here as thanksgiving approached. At the last minute when I realized I wouldn't make it home to Kristin and the Kids I decided to go to Tyler Texas to spend the holiday with my Uncle Ron and Aunt Twilla, My brother and sister Richard and Dena. It was a beautiful day and I was so lucky to have been able to spend it with My Aunt Twilla and Uncle Ron, Richard and Dena ...but as much as I enjoyed the holiday I felt a larger loss than anything else that was taken by the storm. This is the first time in 18 years of being with my wife that we haven't been together for Thanksgiving. This is the first time in 8 years that I've been away from m children during the holiday.This was the first time in 41 years that I haven't spent the holiday with at least one of my parents ( although this wasn't because of the storm ). I lost precious time with my family. I miss them and if I will be bitter about anything, it will be about the time I lost and will never get back. Don't get me wrong. It's been unavoidable. But It will leave a mark that will only serve to remind me of every little thing that was lost in this disaster. Something I can't explain to someone who hasn't been through it. Something that I will try to learn from. I will try to teach my kids from it.................... The most precious thing in life is the Love that you have for your family and the time you can spend with them. It's what memories are made of. The "things" that we lost in the storm are only reminders of those times and memories. I will never lose the memories but I can never get back the time that I lost with the ones that I love.