Cajun Adventure, Post-Hurricane Rita
(continued)
Huey and Dolores had raised five children in their two-bedroom, tin-roofed, big-porched home that’s over 100 years old. After they learned their house was ruined, they rented a trailer just big enough for a toilet and a bed for James. Huey and Dolores slept in chairs for three months. Eventually they got a larger trailer through FEMA, parked nearby, big enough to hold a bed for them as well as one for James. The two beds are parked head-to-foot. The original trailer is now their “outhouse.”
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| gail grenier sweet photo | gail grenier sweet photo |
Dolores and Huey. This picture does not capture the sparkle that was always in both Dolores and Huey's eyes. |
Anna, 3 years old, and friend in our back yard. |
Huey, a small man with health problems (“I quit smoking 30 years too late,” he said), told us that he and Dolores own 15 acres of land. Most of their children have set up housing on the property in a motley assortment of trailers along the road. Adding to the mix are abandoned vehicles, including a tractor, a small school bus, a huge trailer home, and a elevator-equipped “handicap van,” door ajar. Chickens wander everywhere. All day long Anna and I heard roosters crow. It was a good old sound, reminding us of our days tending our own flock back home, seven years ago.
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| gail grenier sweet photo | anna sweet photo |
Boat that floated to the house. |
Abandoned handicap-van. |
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| anna sweet photo | gail grenier sweet photo |
Abandoned tractor. |
Dolores + Huey’s porch and dog. |