TOUCHED BY KATRINA

Katrina came and went without so much as a wisp of breeze through my hair.  I was safe within the embrace of the mountains. I was untouched.  Or so I thought, until I sent a casual email to my friend, inquiring how his daughter, whose husband was stationed at the hospital at Kessler AFB, was faring.  I was not prepared for the reply that the couple had been separated because of duty (the husband is a doctor.)  His daughter had safely left town with her father-in-law but the last my friends had heard from her was in the morning of the 29th as they stopped at Montgomery, AL on their way back in to Mississippi.

I'm sure that they are all okay, and communication with my friends will be made as soon as phone service has been restored.  Until then though, I like hundreds of thousands of others, will wait on pins and needles to get word of the safety and well being of family and loved ones.

My friends are especially anxious.  I photographed their daughter's wedding in late July.  The young couple have been husband and wife for just a little over a month.  But the 29th, the last day he heard from his daughter, was the 5th anniversary of the death of my friend's only son.  And today, the 31st, would have been his son's birthday.

The stories of tragedy, of triumph, of faith and hope are everywhere. My sister is still waiting to hear from her lifelong friend who lived in Mississippi, in an area that was devastated by the storm. 

I tried to put my hopes into a prayer this morning but could not find the words.  The destruction is so devastating, the human toll so high.  I believe even the Angels are weeping at the enormousy of it all.  For those of you who wait for word from loved ones, for those who already know their fate, for those who help in any way and every way possible, my thoughts are with you today.  America will rebuild, she always does.  It is our unity and human compassion that will get us from this over whelming moment of grief and disbelief, of pain and weakness, to the point where we can begin to rebuild.  We are our brother's keeper.  We are America.  It is what we are, it is who we are.