Kids, in case you don't remember, I want to share my perspective with the three of you on what it was like for our family to live through a pandemic, topped off with a category 4 hurricane.
It's been over a year and a half since my last post. COVID-19 shut down the world in March of 2020. New Orleanians were lucky to sneak in Mardi Gras 2020, but St. Patrick's Day and literally every event after that were cancelled. Schools closed. Businesses shut down. People we knew were sick. Some died. I lost a friend to suicide. The election and the media turned people against one another. A cancel culture mindset, simply put, made people downright mean. Everyone wore masks, and "social distancing" was probably the most commonly used phrase in 2020; something we'd never even heard of til then. We weren't supposed to see your grandparents and older relatives. We couldn't have birthday parties for you. Your third grade, Kindergarten and PK2 year was cut short. Piano lessons were virtual. Sometimes even dance lessons were virtual, depending on who had to "quarantine." Our busy calendar was suddenly empty.
Despite all of that, it was a beautiful year for our family. Every day, all I could think about was how lucky we were. Our jobs remained stable. We had Granny to help us with you so that we could work. We took walks outside almost every day. We met our neighbors. Jasper, you finally learned how to ride a bike. Granted, you had a lot of scraped knees, but it was worth it. Sam, you loved the much slower pace of life. The three of you became true friends. You used your imaginations to play. You'd jump from pillow to pillow, calling the ground hot lava, or the coronavirus, which was pretty funny.
A vaccination became available and we jumped at the opportunity. While many were happy to receive it, there were just as many that distrusted it. I'll save that conversation for another post... In short, we celebrated our 40th birthdays with an EPIC 80s party. We had an AMAZING summer, swimming at Granny's house with various friends every chance we had, and enjoying a normal cabbage ball season. We celebrated Bianca turning 4 with a mermaid swim party and Jasper turning 10 with a surprise trip to St. Francisville. We packed in a year of fun into just a few months!
A new strain of COVID developed just as the world was starting to get back to normal, and just in time to put the same awful restrictions back on your school and life. Back to mask wearing, more people sick and dying, and people turning against one another. Awful. We were doing our best, doing everything in our power to keep you happy, safe and on the right track with regard to school and learning, which has been no easy task. After a week of a frustrating home learning quarantine for Jasper, we find out that there was a storm in the gulf headed for the Louisiana coastline. As soon as your dad mentioned the storm to me, I had this bad feeling. I can't describe it. I just knew. Sure enough, Hurricane Ida made landfall on, ironically, August 29, 2021, close to where Katrina hit EXACTLY 16 years ago. We chose to stay. I was confident in our levee system. But I had my doubts that morning as the winds picked up. Ultimately, I still believe we made the right call for our family. The hurricane was stronger and closer than the news had predicted. Our roof started leaking but because we were there to address the issues as they happened, we probably saved thousands of dollars in damage. Your dad spent hours going up and down the attic stairs, emptying buckets of water. We spent the next four days without electricity. We cleaned out refrigerators for friends and family, picked up tree debris, tarped roofs, and even traveled to Gulfport for gas to keep the generators working. And if that wasn't enough chaos, Granny broke out in hives. Nothing was more dramatic and catastrophic though than when your technology devices died. (Insert eye roll here.)
I spent those first few days with you after the storm reminding you over and over, that when you can help people, you help them. I watched you pick up branches that were bigger than you, and drag them to the curb at Grandpa and CiCi's, then at Granny's too. Together, we picked up over 500 pieces of roof shingles at our Destrehan friends' house--we made it a game to count them. We saved A LOT of ice cream from going to waste at Aunt Carol and Debbie's house, then our neighbors' house too. After an exhausting and HOT few days, God knew we had enough and that it was time to get out. My friend from 3rd grade, whom I hadn't seen in 32 years, reached out and offered us a free place to stay in Galveston. I will never be able to repay her and her family for their generosity. All I can do is promise to pay it forward by teaching you that true generosity still exists, and that it's our responsibility to continue such acts of kindness, whether they be big or small.
We'll go home tomorrow to a messy but air conditioned house, with very little damage. Eventually, school will start back up again. We'll have a new roof put on. We will be back to tailgating as soon as this Saturday, God willing. Life will go on for us. Please don't ever take this life for granted. We are so very lucky, lucky to be healthy and to have a home when so many others don't. If you learn anything from my thoughts and experiences, I hope that it's to appreciate what you have and to help others when you can.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this unscheduled "evacuation-vacation." You may not realize this now, but it was just what we needed when we needed it.
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