Four Years Ago…

Yesterday was my birthday and what a day it was! I was so touched by all the many birthday wishes friends were leaving on my Facebook page and began replying to each individually. Apparently I reached some unknown activity limit and Facebook decided to wish me a happy birthday by disabling my account. Lovely. It was a real pain but I was overwhelmed by the responses I got to this. I received text messages, emails and phone calls. My daughter started a FB group, “Tell Facebook to Restore Deanna Piercy’s Account” and 87 people joined in short order. (Facebook reinstated my account this morning.)

We went out to dinner with my parents, kids and son-in-law, sister-in-law and niece, and a dear friend and his daughter. We had a wonderful meal together. We then went to our favorite hangout where we were joined by around a dozen friends, plus our *kids*. We had a fantastic time and I’ll post some pictures Monday. David and I leave in a couple of hours for OKC for the weekend so I’ll just put all birthday-related photos in one post.

So that was yesterday. Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (we will be out of town so I’m writing and posting this early). I will always remember this date, in part because of its proximity to my birthday. I will never forget the birthday I spent at a hurricane party on Bourbon Street, hoping our flight would get out the next day. The memories are bittersweet. We had a great time and our new friends, Bryan and Debi of Debi and the Deacons, sang the Beatles birthday song for me. One of the bartenders had celebrated her birthday the previous night and had even insisted on dancing with me. Sadly, Lori Jane is no longer with us. A swirl of memories comes to mind as I think of that trip to New Orleans and they are mostly good. What followed, however, was one of the most tragic and heartbreaking events this country has known.

My time is short today as I need to pack for our little trip so I’m going to link to my previous anniversary posts rather than write anything lengthy about the recovery process. David and I will be in New Orleans just three weeks from now and then again the end of October. I hope to get out to some of the areas where recovery has been painfully slow and perhaps have some pictures and commentary at that point. But for now, you can read my previous anniversary posts:

One Year Ago Today…

Two Years…Too Long…

Three Years Ago...

You can also read Katrina anniversary stories from the Times Picayune here.

I wish I had time to write more today but I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes about New Orleans:

In 1877, correspondent Lafcadio Hearn wrote this to his buddy back in Cincinnati regarding the state of New Orleans:
“Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under a lava flood of taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become only a study for archaeologists. Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I am telling the truth. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.

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