Well, the official news is in. Henry Elementary is no more. There was no hope that they would try to keep it. Even the local people did not try to fight. The school has been close to exctinction for quite some time. Primarily because people who have pull really did not want it. No one knows what will become of the children or the teachers yet. But we do know that they will come in an give those of us who have seniority a choice. We will have to make a decision right then and there. What will I do, I have not the slightest idea. I do not want to go back into the classroom. I am too old to put up with that hassle again. I can’t say that this makes the year better or worse. I wish I had the experience to go into a job with less stress than this, but I will make the decision when I am informed as to what I can decide.

The days are winding to the end. The year will be over and I say thank god. I have never looked so forward to a new year in all my life. Especially since I am a lot older now, I like for the years to slow down so I can enjoy them, but Not this year!
The year began with all bright and promise. We ate with Aunt Olga and Uncle Bud -Pat and Theron. We did all the correct things. Ate our cabbage, black eye peas, cornbread, etc but I am seriously rethinking this for the new year.
Though I must say, our year was better than most people, it was one of the worst that we have ever had. If God had a purpose, which most christians believe, then it must be as one of my friends said. For Steve and I to grow closer, for us to appreciate what we do have, and for me to realize that life does go on good or bad. I do appreciate my children (young men). I enjoy them and will always have them close in my heart no matter where they may go. I do love Steve and appreciate his good qualities. I have learn to accept people for what they are and hope that I can cope with those who have an irritating problem.
Before the school year ends, we must make several decisions. All I can say is that we make them in the best interest of our future. I will have to decide what I will do jobwise. Hopefully, I will be able to continue what I am doing and do it where I will feel comfortable and with close friends. We must also decide whether to rebuild the big house for sure. It disturbs me to know that within a few months we must again worry about whether another hurricane will come and take what we have rebuilt. But 2006 will definitely be a year for reflecting and making difficult choices.

Before the trip to New York, we had hired Robb to come back and work on the chateaux. He worked the entire week before and really progressed with putting in insulation and putting up paneling. Also learning about “Grandfather Ramke’s” creative handiwork. Terri arrived the weekend before Thanksgiving and brighten up our days. She flew in and flew out…not literally. But she was here so quickly and gone so quickly we missed her before she left. She coined the phrase “my grandfather was creative” everytime Robb found some inconsistency in his building. Believe me, there was quite a bit of the creative handiwork. It was wonderful having a female around to talk to again after Michelle. Somehow I do not know what I would do without Molly’s girls. They are like the daughters I never had except better. They are like good friends!

After we returned from the New York trip, things began to fall into a routine. We were informed that the apartment would be out of rent by the company at the end of the month. We were planning to stay, but were not excited about paying for a place that was slowly falling apart. We also did not know how to get in touch with the owner. We had tried to inform them about their problems, but were unsucessful. The lady at MI told us that we should not rent the apartment, but look at another place that was paid up for quite sometime. It was a house in the old Myrtle place neighborhood. I was thrilled. That area of town was at one time a very quiet and pleasant neighborhood. We visited the house and were thrilled to know that it would be pleasant. It also meant that Fred could come back in our life. I had to find a place for him, since the people taking care of him were unable continue to keep him. It is fantastic to have him back.

We moved in one day. It was rough, but we survived thanks to Trey helping. This house is a little on the cool side, but it is fine.

Robb returned the second week in December and immediately began working. He worked very hard getting as much done as he could. We realized that there was too much to do for him to finish at this time, so he will return after the New Year.

David and Mary arrived on the 22nd for Christmas. Trey picked them up and brought them to our place. On Christmas Eve, Amanda’s parents came over to eat. We especially wanted them to come, because Ed has been such a help with the clean up at Bancker. Yes, we know it was for his daughter, but it was a very special thing for him to do.
Christmas has been wonderful. Trey cooked gumbo (all day) and we never stop eating. We really enjoyed the visits and will miss David and Mary very much when they leave. Trey will be visiting with them until the 15th, so we will be missing him also.

Next Christmas will be lonely. By then both of the guys will be living far away. It will be hard on me if 2006 goes too fast.

We have been blessed though. Throughout the entire ordeal that we have gone through, we still have each other and a wonderful extended family.

I am sorry not to have sat down and finished my time in New York. That was fantastic. Mary and I took off Friday also. Mary graded papers and I read. I was feeling better, but wanted to be able to really go far on Saturday. Steve and David took off to Atlantic city and had a good time. I enjoyed being with Mary. I was reading a book written by a good friend of hers. She had even helped her edit some of the writing. It turned out to be one of the best books I have read in the last few years. I could not put it down. Steve even took pictures of me sitting on the couch with Mary’s cat “Boogie” laying on my legs. Both of us were very comfortable and settled in. (Since I came home, I have been promoting the book to all my friends.)
Saturday, we took off for Manhattan while Steve and David took off to find a game of pool. I wanted to see NYU and Greenich Village. I was disappointed. I thought it would resemble the artsy area of New Orleans with artists on the sidewalk. But it did not matter. I enjoyed going to see it and taking pictures of fifth avenue, NYU and other interesting sights. I did buy Mary’s friend’s book. I knew that I could not finish it and I wanted a book by an author from Louisiana.
We left Sunday early in the morning. We were worried about getting there too late. We ended up there very early and were able to eat breakfast before leaving. The plane ride was fine, but we knew we were going back to the real world. Nothing makes it more evident than landing in New Orleans. Though the worse destruction is not in our landing path, the “famous” blue roofs are rampant throughout the area we travel over. For those unfamiliar with this, “blue roofs” are blue tarps put over the house with roof damage. Some have even been put on by National Guard to assist the owners. Insurance will not even look at your roof, if they are not covered in that way. I truly felt sorry for the people of New Orleans, but I know now that no one can truly understand it unless they go through it. Each person has their own and separate grief through their loss.

Well, yesterday I awoke with the “creeping crud”. That was what we called it in Abbeville. Everyone was getting it and I took something to keep from getting it. Now I have it big time and no doctor to go to. I just hope that it stays away from everyone else.
We had a wonderful meal, but feeling the way I do. I could not enjoy it to the fullest. Mary acted like she was not feeling well, so I am worried that she is coming down with it. Hope that things are better tomorrow. I would like to go to Atlantic City. Not to see it, but to see the countryside. I think the snow fizzled out. Hope the parade was a good one.

Yesterday, we got our first taste of New York rain. David mentioned that it was not like Louisiana. Yes, we do have those all day cold rain, but they do seem to quit at some time. This one did not. In fact, it is going on again this morning. Yesterday, was quite an experience. We sat around the apartment most of the day. Did get to go eat at a restaurant around the corner’ We hav fallen in love with it. It could be an expensive love affair. Yes, the cost for things here are expensive. I can understand the kids wish to move out to the suburbs.
Last night we went to an off-broadway play. I was a little dubious about the show. But I knew it would be interesting. It turned out to be quite a special event. The name of the group is the Blue Man Group. They play music and perform. There were a lot of teenagers present with their parents, so my first thought was this must be something geared for the kids. But it lends itself to my generations also. In fact, some of the things they did reminded me of our younger days. Black lights and flashing lights. Along with all of this is satire. They also involved the audience in quite a lot of activities. As David told us they are pretending to be space men who can not talk therefore everything is mimed. It is the type of show you can not really explain to another person. You must experience it. They can take those on broadway plays and keep them. This was a lot better.

We have survived the entire process, but we have all been left with scars. School is progressing, but the uncertainty of the our situation leaves us worried still. Will they rebuild or not’ The “not” seems to be favored. What I will do if this comes true is really a perplexing question. I DO NOT want to go into the classroom nor do I want to go to a different school. I am not in my 30’s where restarting in a new situation is appealing to me. But no matter what I do, I will have to restart. Do I want the familiar or the totally unfamiliar’ Neither one is appealing.
Instead of facing the future right now, I am sitting in New Jersey with my son. Enjoying every minute of just doing whatever I feel like. I could take a lot of this type of feeling.
Yesterday, we went to the big city with the sole goal of riding the ferry. The walk was fun. (Though I have to say …we were tired.) We visited the Indian museum, I bought a scarf at the Century 1 department store for the ferry ride. Somehow I did not hear that we would be inside and not outside.
Found out that Staten Island was actually a place to live. After reading it’s history, you can understand the importance to New York. They utilize it still as a type of buffer from any type of land or water assault. Most of the people that worked in the World Trade Center came from the island.
After the trip we wandered our way back to New Jersey. The path train late at night on a Saturday, is a little scary. But last night it was fun and quiet. The people do not greet you that is for sure. In fact, they tend to close their eyes and ignore others. I know that I would not like to travel back and forth this way every day. I can tell my age when I think like that. Until tomorrow.

Time has passed and much has been done.
Physically we are fine (except for Steve…). I will not write this by dates,but I will be talking about a span of time from September 26 thru today October 23. Why so long, I have been without a computer nor proper conditions to write in. Today, Steve has just left to go play golf and I am sitting alone with not only a telephone, but internet (DSL in fact)
At this moment I am sitting in a townhouse that MI has loaned to us until the end of November. After that if we need it, we will be able to rent it until the little house is finished.
Our saga of ups and downs just continues on.

On the 26th we were told by Blake, an employee from MI, that six miles south of Abbeville, you could not get anywhere except by boat. He told us that he launched his boat and went to the area near Pelican Rd. to rescue his girlfriend. We did not know, but on Saturday a second surge came in behind the hurricane flooding the entire area south of Abbeville toward Henry and Intracoastal. This meant bad news for us and for MI in regard to the plant. The water started dropping fast and by Monday you could drive through some water in two places before Bancker. But when we got to the ferry, we were stuck. The entire Henry area had a smell of the beach. It was not a fresh brisk smell, but a stench. We found later that the water was full of salt and that a lot of cattle and wild life had been killed. Also numerous graves have floated up out of the ground. Sea gulls were quite prevalent looking for food. Some of the homes looked as if they had been hit by a bomb. Henry Elementary was in just a bad a shape as the homes around it. My friends home had moved to the edge of her yard. The water had lifted it and put it down. People had begun to clean out houses and piles of trash were lining the road thru Rose Hill and right before you turned to Bancker. http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/rita/henry/ This sight will show you the inside of the school.

At the ferry, the water was still extremely high on the road. No regular trucks could pass. While looking we saw several people. Ms. Nell, my best friend, has a daughter who lived in Intracoastal. She was there at the ferry landing and launching a flat boat to go down to her home. She had been here already and knew that there was a lot of work for her to do. She had at least 5 to 6 foot of water in her house. They plan to clean and repair despite this being their second time. We also met a young man named Chad Dartez. (His aunt was a Demarcy and she had lived on our property when she was born. They had worked for my Grandfather and probably lived in Cubie’s house.) Steve asked him if he knew someone with a boat that we could borrow. He told us he did and he thought he could launch it in Perry. It was a nice size boat, so he did not think he could launch it at Henry. We went back to his place in Perry, got his boat and eventually found we would have to try it down at the ferry. The water was high enough that we could ride through the ditch into the river.

The ride down was pleasant, because it was so hot on this day. The breeze from the boat made it pleasant. We did not see damage at the shipyard, nor at the Deharts, so we were still not sure of what we would find.

We rode up to Grandpa’s house and it looked perfect. I was so excited until we realized that there was a slight water line on the walls. Being white it was hard to tell. It did appear to be as far up as the window sills. It must have gotten at least a few feet in, because the light furniture was moved and turned over. We knew then we were in trouble. Grandfather Ramke’s house is higher than ours.

We walked quickly down to the place and saw the water lines on all the buildings. We found that at least four feet plus went into both homes. What amazed me was that the ground around the houses appeared dry. In fact, the Ramke Road was not wet at all. This has led me to believe that the water receded quickly to the swamp and field. It was still there on this day.

As per the pictures you can tell that everything was ruined. Refrigerators, stoves, beds, washing machines, dryers, some airconditioners, water heaters, etc. The list can go on forever.
We crossed over to Uncle Bud to find that he had the same amount of water as Grandfather’s house did. We did not try to walk in at this time, because we were too overwhelmed. Later that night, we felt the loss. We did not know what we were going to do.Except that we needed to do something- so we began cleaning.

I received a phone call from my principal that a decision had been made that we were going to merge with Herod elementary. We were to have a meeting on the 29th and 30th with the principal and teachers from Herod. Ms. Charlotte asked that we come in on Wednesday, and meet with her so that we could have a few minutes together to talk.

I was thankful but apprehensive, because of my emotional state. I could be alright and then all of a sudden I would start crying because something had hit that nerve. I knew this was normal, but I was not ready to be around people beside family. I clinged to being with Trey, because I was scared to let go.Thank god, we were together thru this. I could not have handled it as well, if he had been in Lafayette and me in Slidell. I wish he would have spared the trauma and had been far away like David though. I do not believe this type of suffering is needed to build character.

I did survive the first meeting, but not without shedding a sew tears. One of our teachers was replacing a teacher on maternity leave. She was my rock. She had just lost her home and job to Katrina. But she informed me that it would be better. Time would ease the hurt and she and her husband were closer now than they had ever been. Our meeting together was very emotional. We had nine employees that had had flooding. Elaine and I had been talking. We knew how bad our situation was. She said her trailer was shredded. There was nothing left. She was staying with her daughter and mother in Abbeville. Of course, her mother had had flooding as bad or worse than ours.

I started school on the following Thursday, October 6th. Between that time we had plodded through cleaning the two houses. It was hot and miserable. We used gloves, but for the first few days, we had not used masks. We did not get shots either. We figured that if we had caught something we would already have it.

We applied for FEMA, but we were not sure what we were going to do besides get the $2,000. We had been so blessed with the people who were managers of the Hilton, that we did not even think too far ahead.

It took two full weeks plus a few days to clean both buildings. The major problem was Trey had to work the first week at the Hilton and then began school on the second week of October. We worked around his schedule most of the time.

Cleaning homes that are flooded has been the most traumatic experience I have encountered in my life. I am sure it will be for Trey and Amanda also. I hope that will be the worse for them. I look back on my sisters and mother dying and think that grief was a “piece of cake”. Here you are not only going through treasured things, but you are also saying “why didn’t I do this or that”. This continues throughout the entire experience no matter what you tell yourself. The guilt is burdening. People say…”The only thing that matters is you and your family are safe.” I will never tell anyone that ever. Yes, we know this is vitally important. BUT you suffer a great grief when you look at things that could have been saved–“if only”.

Michelle was able to come over the weekend of the 9th. She helped me save some pictures from Grandfather Ramke’s house, so that they would not ruin. We also went through Aunt Olga’s house and removed some pictures. We cleaned them and saved them in my storage unit. The most wonderful thing she did was be there in place of Marlene and Anna. I needed a woman to talk to and also needed her logic
and ablility to just listen.

Mike and Robb came over the 15th and helped Steve with the final cleaning and spraying. They also replace all the multitude of electric plugins. The one thing Steve and Trey have had a fun time laughing over was how many plugins dad put in his houses. He was determined not to be without a plugin in any room.

This last week should have been a piece of cake. We had decided to fix the chateaux and to begin fixing the main house while we lived in the chateaux. (We are determined to change that name to a special german name for little house)
Well, then the government and parish decided to start playing “tough” . They informed people that if they had flooded and they lived south of LA 14, they would have to get a permit to build. We would also have to raise our house well above flood level. Well, we all know that we can not raise our brick house without spending a fortune. It would pay us to rebuild rather than raise it. Who can afford that at our age’ Besides, some of the people that built really high, still had some damage to their homes. The homes on stilts in Cameron and Pecan Island all blew down. Now what are you going to say about them. Well, it was looking bleak. We got an appointment with our lawyer and Steve went to talk to the police juror over our area. Both told us that if we had started repairing to just continue. We did not have to get a permit. So we hope things will begin to level out.

Today, I feel better, October 23rd. There are still minor irritations. But we have had good luck along with the bad. We have a place to live. Hopefully we will be able to finish the chateaux and go on from there. (Especially, until we are ready to move to another place.) Trey has a place to stay. We have survived,and even though Steve is still smoking. He is handling things better than if he wasn’t. School is alright for the interventionists. And even though some of our Henry gang are complainers—they always will be—-things will go on.

The best thing is I HAVE A COMPUTER COMING, and WE HAVE INTERNET.
So until the next dramatic event, I leave you.

I am without a computer except for steve’s therefore this is the only place i can write with a sense of privacy.
The last three months have been hell. (Or more so, a nightmare.) I will not sugarcoat it. We started the process of getting our house ready for selling.
5/31 I made the mistake of telling the wrong person..at this point, I do not
know whom that was.This sent the info straight to a VERY interested person. Of course, I can hear your brain churning why should this be bad. The person came to us immediately and began begging us to show them the place…yea
7/31 I had been traveling and the house was a mess. So for two full weeks I was cleaning and throwing stuff so that I could allow this person in my house. We were anxious, because we knew that the person would want to give us a lowball figure for the house, since they wanted to see it before we fix it. Still where is the bad news.
(In this dissertation the feelings go up and down…steve quit smoking making it difficult to live with him and everything was even more stressful.)
8/1 The people loved the house…yea….We told them to think about it and make us an offer. Of course, they came back with a lowball figure..booooo. We told them we could not take that and what we had to have…they left.
8/11 Well, I began school, thinking how wonderful this year would be. we spent an entire year of getting use to the intervention format. we showed success, so this year will be a piece of cake…we have a new principal, but she seems to be okay. not a ms. moss type person, but at least, she is okay. the year starts out fine. then mitzi tells us we will have a new program that we will have everything available to work with the kids. we are excited because it sounds great. yep, this is the best thing since toothpaste. yea…….wheeee.
8/22 we started off working with the kids using our regular
program. things are progressing fine. well, back to the house…the people come back and offer us just barely what we need. we then begin to check out our payoff. that was an extreme headache, because we had to fax the paperwork. they would not tell us over the telephone nor mail it without a signed authorization…we buy a fax machine because steve does not want to fax our personal info through his company. The company notifies us that we are going to be penalize if we pay before the 9/16th. We notify the guidrys that we can not sell before that date. they seem fine with that. yea…
8/29 the guidrys came back with the money to pay off the house. they said that they will wait until after the 16th . they said that they will tell their
mortgage company to set the date after that. wheee…..
i begin packing and found a place to store our things. things seem to run
smoothly. school began and we are looking forward to getting out of this house and moving to Bancker.
9/1 the guidrys came back and had a problem. their mortgage company’s employee would be on vacation at the end of the month. therefore we would have to sign the papers on the 9th but they promised that they would not close the loan until the 16th. oooo….sounds good, but we begin to become nervous about the entire thing.
9/6 we have our meeting for the new program…sounds great, but we are not sure it will be as easy as it sound. because of Hurricane Katrina we are getting new studentsand we will have to not only learn the new program we will be dealing with weaker students.
9/9 the final day is here..seems our apprehension was justified. we were
informed yesterday that we would have to pay the penalty. the guidrys mortgage company will not wait until the 16th. we decide well we will have to just eat it. I told steve…think of it as just another house payment. now we have NO house payment at all. we do have until the 16th to move out.
9/12 whoa i am beginning testing at school and frantically packing at
home…this week will be extremely stressful.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh….
9/17 the move was unreal. we were overwhelmed until 10:00pm. we spent our first night here in bancker. it was so pleasant. the bed was wonderful and we enjoyed our restful night.
9/19 we began to relax that night. Living at Bancker would be interesting, but not terrible. On the news, they said that there was a hurricane in the gulf. They predicted that it would go to an area between Corpus Christi and Galveston. We were not too worried, because it would be far enough away that we would only get rain and some thunderstorms.

9/20 The news is disturbing. Their predictions have shifted further east. That means that we will probably get some storm surge. At this time the hurricane is a category four, named Rita. Is this why fate was trying to stop us from moving””’ We went to work as usual and watched the weather closely. Where it will come up is anybody’s guess. They are leaning toward Galveston and Houston. This is not good for Mike and Yvie. Elaine has already called and made a reservation in Hope, Arkansas. Gee, I wish I had. But Steve is not worried and he says he will not leave.

9/21 the news is still not good. They are beginning to evacuate Galveston and Houston. Rita is now a category 5. The same as Katrina. I am scared. I know that Bancker has never flooded, but the storm is so big, that I am afraid it will be bad. I told Steve that we will leave. I will not stay here during a Hurricane.Once was enough for me.

9/22 they say don’t say “it couldn’t get worse”, because then it will. Well, someone must have said that in this area. The hurricane is still a category 5 and it is still heading up. this time is is predicted to hit between texas and mississippi. this means it is following the path of Audrey. i am worried and plan to do something, but figure that it will not flood us because Audrey didn’t. we got up this morning and went to school hoping that they would cancel school. finally at 8:30am they said school would close at 1:00. things never change. they always wait until the last minute to make a definite decision. well, steve agrees to leave, and we try to figure where to go. of course, the roads are packed. pat left this morning with uncle bud and aunt olga headed for dallas. steve does not want to go that way, because it would be in the path of the storm also. trey calls and said that if we wanted, we could stay at the hilton with him. they gave him a room for him and his family if he would work through the hurricane. relief is all we can feel. we had thought of Vera in Slidell, but the traffic is horrendous. it would probably take all night to get there. we pack things and put some things up. i brought some things to school, because it is higher than the house. we put fred at a shelter and settled down at the hotel to hope for the best.

9/23 things only look worse this morning. we will definitely get some rough weather, so we went last night and bought snacks in case the electricity goes off. we sit watching the weather channel continuously until everyone decides it is time to sleep. the wind has picked up , but we can not see much so it is not scary.

9/24 we had a rude awakening at 6:00 am this morning. Trey was taking a bath and the fire alarm was going off. He became very authoritative and told us we needed to get out and walk to the front of the building. so there we went. thank heavens, i was sleeping in some clothes instead of pajamas. i grabbed my clothes anyway. trey kept fussing and rushing us out. amanda and i were standing in front of the hotel, wind was blowing and storming, and we just looked at each other. our comments were here we were evacuating from a fire into a hurricane. something is wrong with this picture. finally, we were told it was a false alarm and we could return to the room. we settled down, trey called and told us that some kids had broke the alarm and set it off. thirty minutes later, the alarm went off again. once more we trotted out into the hurricane. they tried to find the kids, but were unsuccessful. we were allowed to return. false alarm. this happened at least three more times. the staff decided to turn the alarm off. finally, they figured that it must have been broken so that it would continue to go off. with it turned completely off, then we were able to relax. the worse was yet to come. the storm rita was heading straight to Cameron. this mean, Audrey all over. everyone had been evacuated, but it was still not a good. sign. we spent the entire night watching cnn hearing how things were not good for us. our weather was rough, but the news was worse.

9/25 the news is very bad. all of the area south of 14 was flooded. a strong storm surge has hit and there is damage. of course, Cameron is once again a flattened community. at least this time, there are not people sitting on their roofs fighting snakes. we hear though that people are trapped down at Forked Island, Seventh Ward, and Henry.People have begun getting boats and rescuing them. Steve called Blake and found out that he had had to rescue our neighbor on Plum road, shannon, because she had gone back to her house. Is Bancker flooded’ Yes, but can we have managed to survive the flooding again. We do not know. Only time will tell. The worry is terrible. Steve did begin smoking again. I had no problem with that. There is a glimmer of hope, because we keep remembering that in 1957, Audrey, we did not flood at our place. This will be continued at another date.

On the 16th of this month everything will happen. We are suppose to be out of the old house and into the new (old) house. Electricity is SUPPOSE to be turned on. I will wait to see that. The last week has not been fun…in fact, this entire experience has not been fun. I can not believe that so many things have happened. One could believe that this is a premonition…if you were superstitious. 😯
This week though I seem to not have time to do anything. Between cleaning, packing, and working at school– I have no time to breathe until 8:00 pm 🙁 . Then I want to go to bed to sleep. Not fun, not fun, not fun….if I repeat it, do you think it will get better or worse.
I will not write any more, because I can not think of anything positive. So I will leave until another day. :'(