Post by martyb on Aug 28, 2010 9:35:05 GMT -5
I also posted this on johnwayne-thealamo.com. So I apologize to any 'double dippers' like me.
it was five years ago this weekend when my life and the lives of my family was totally changed. I, my wife and two sons were made totally homeless. We lost everything. My two daughters in Houston were spared. After Camille in 1969 it took me just over a year to get back. Katrina was so bad that I'm still trying to get back after 5 years. My family went through without a scratch but mentally we were devastated. We lost everything including house, furniture, clothes, family photos, important documents, (me...over 8,000 books, uniforms, muskets and accouterments and over 40 years of art portfolios).
We are still living in a FEMA mobile home (60' x15') next to my brother-in-laws rural home in Ocean Springs. We've been through the SBA Loan and a grant from the state of Mississippi. I've had to take out a 30 year mortgage and I'm still $15,000 from being finished. I'll have to do that on my own shanks. My Air Force pension is O.K. but I can only do a little at a time. I'm hoping to be back in my house in April or May of 2011.
I know that, to many, Katrina is a distant memory. To us on the Gulf Coast it is an omnipresent nightmare, but, we will come back.
However, my request today is that you, my pards, pray not just for us here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as we still struggle to come backm my personal request is that you pray for my neighbor, Doug DeSilvey. Before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Doug's family retreated to his mother-in law's house, as they had for many storms. Doug looked out into the bay behind the house and was convinced that the water would rise too high. As he tried to warn his family about the danger, the roof collapsed. Doug's' wife, Linda Allen DeSilvey, 57, and daughter, Donna K. DeSilvey, 35, died, as did Linda's mother, Nadine Allen Gifford, 79, and her husband, Edward "Ted" Gifford, 79.
All of my years of art may have turned to papier mache' and I may have lost a few jeehaws but we survived. So think of all of us here in Biloxi, the Gulf Coast and New Orleans and say a prayer that this nightmare will end soon.
it was five years ago this weekend when my life and the lives of my family was totally changed. I, my wife and two sons were made totally homeless. We lost everything. My two daughters in Houston were spared. After Camille in 1969 it took me just over a year to get back. Katrina was so bad that I'm still trying to get back after 5 years. My family went through without a scratch but mentally we were devastated. We lost everything including house, furniture, clothes, family photos, important documents, (me...over 8,000 books, uniforms, muskets and accouterments and over 40 years of art portfolios).
We are still living in a FEMA mobile home (60' x15') next to my brother-in-laws rural home in Ocean Springs. We've been through the SBA Loan and a grant from the state of Mississippi. I've had to take out a 30 year mortgage and I'm still $15,000 from being finished. I'll have to do that on my own shanks. My Air Force pension is O.K. but I can only do a little at a time. I'm hoping to be back in my house in April or May of 2011.
I know that, to many, Katrina is a distant memory. To us on the Gulf Coast it is an omnipresent nightmare, but, we will come back.
However, my request today is that you, my pards, pray not just for us here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as we still struggle to come backm my personal request is that you pray for my neighbor, Doug DeSilvey. Before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Doug's family retreated to his mother-in law's house, as they had for many storms. Doug looked out into the bay behind the house and was convinced that the water would rise too high. As he tried to warn his family about the danger, the roof collapsed. Doug's' wife, Linda Allen DeSilvey, 57, and daughter, Donna K. DeSilvey, 35, died, as did Linda's mother, Nadine Allen Gifford, 79, and her husband, Edward "Ted" Gifford, 79.
All of my years of art may have turned to papier mache' and I may have lost a few jeehaws but we survived. So think of all of us here in Biloxi, the Gulf Coast and New Orleans and say a prayer that this nightmare will end soon.