This blog post is dedicated to Laury, whose beloved New Orleans is back. Not only did Laury's candidate, Mitch Landrieu win the Mayoral election last week, but the Saints won the Super Bowl yesterday! Life is good in NOLA this morning, and I'll bet they're still partyin' on Bourbon Street. I took this photo of Laury leaning out of the window at the Chatette last September. Today Laury is in Frankfurt, Germany doing an orientation for her military contract job which will be in Stuttgart. She'll be away from the Chatette for two months...a long time to be missing Cadrieu and the Lot...but necessary right now. During the month I spent at Laury's, I was privileged to hear a lot about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it wrought on New Orleans. Laury's 'storm stories,' as she calls them, broke my heart. It wasn't just property that was destroyed during the storm, it was also lives, jobs, friendships, love affairs, churches, parks, and essential services for the poor and the underserved. The storm brought out both the best and the worst in people. It changed Laury's life forever. Today, though, there is joy in NOLA. As I listened to NPR this morning, correspondent Cokie Roberts, an ex-pat New Orleanian, summed it up: This may sound silly but this Super Bowl win on the heels of Mitch Landrieu's victory seems like a turning point for New Orleans ( my paraphrase of her comments). I pray that she is right!
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