Each time I lose something special, my heart breaks just a little bit more. With all of my family’s heirlooms plundered from our home after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, I’ve learned to cherish that which is given to me as a gift or inheritance. My mother taught me a long time ago to value life and knowledge more than material possessions, but as long as I’m corporeal, attachment to certain things is unavoidable, especially those of historic or emotional value.
Last night, before I ate the dinner lovingly cooked by my husband, I stopped to give thanks for a roof over my head, central heat and hot water and the loss of only a refrigerator, a few plants and a bit of my sanity during and after Katrina and the flood. The owners of the Northwest Carrollton home pictured above aren’t as lucky. According to Karen, “This house caught fire after the flood. They just settled with Insurance and were going to start rebuilding this week. This will be demolished tomorrow instead.”
As it goes for scores of homes in the New Orleans area. How much can one person and their home go through? The rest of us are damned lucky.
