Friday, November 25, 2005
Seriously Giving Thanks
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family and friends and a kind of awe at all that we have to be grateful for.
Ellie came out for a whole week and Jacob's cousins, Dorothy and Katy, 7 and 4 years old, ran around the house squealing, hugging the dogs, chasing Jacob and generally being more alive than seemed possible. Cousin Matthew smiled to see Jacob beseiged by little girls demanding his attention the way Jacob used to do to him.
It was great to see Matthew's sisters Kara, back from her senior year at Brown, and Zena with her boyfriend, Lance, and her comical boston terrier, Roxie. Their dad, Young's brother, Demian said a simple, eloquent, grace that summed up our thankfulness. We really missed Lorraine, and Jacob Fenton who had to work, and Letty who was in LA with her family there, but my sister, Susan and her husband, Jeffrey, and Alex were all here where they belong.
Our friends Mike and Barbara joined us on their way home to Olympia after months of relief work on the gulf coast. Mike cut this from a letter that Barbara wrote to her daughter Tilden with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. It gives a feel of why she keeps coming back. With her permission I share it with you.
"“The past 10 days I've also been doing work in Cameron Parish - a Gulf shore community where Hurricane Rita came ashore. For 50 miles along the shore most human habitation has been almost completely erased: brick houses left only a pile of bricks, mobile homes a few pier blocks as the only trace, a beach house lot is now only sand with a large puddle in the middle, the high school a metal frame with wires dangling down where the flourescent fixtures once were - and nothing more.
“In the center of the town of Cameron, the storm surge (28 feet high) seems to have been damped by the oil tanks and larger commercial buildings so a few buildings are there, washed into the neighbors' yards, perhaps upended, their frames racked and broken, full of mud and sea grass. I keep wondering which would be worse to come home to.
“The people of Cameron Parish have been the best I have ever dealt with. Not one has been impatient, angry or unkind. Perhaps they always were kind and generous, but I think too the devastation has shocked them into a level of acceptance and sense of moral balance that those less impacted never got.
“They have lost everything but their family members and a handful of friends to count on. Suddenly those are the only important things in life, absolutely everything else has proved transient, effemeral.
I ask them to list the things they lost. After the first few items, most will shrug their shoulders and say "oh well, those things weren't that important".
"These people are living often with multiple other families also left homeless in the homes of friends whose singlewide mobilehome may only be habitable because FEMA tarped the destoyed roof. The family members they turn to for help also lost everything. They have no idea when this transcient existance will end or what their future will hold.
"After months in these stressful conditions, for the most part, they are not wringing each others necks but still holding each others hands.”
I forgot to ask Mike and Barbara for a picture from Cameron Parish, but maybe they'll email one.
And we are thankful to welcome another baby to the world - Bailey Grace Weldon was born yesterday at 2:53 in Santa Rosa.
Ellie came out for a whole week and Jacob's cousins, Dorothy and Katy, 7 and 4 years old, ran around the house squealing, hugging the dogs, chasing Jacob and generally being more alive than seemed possible. Cousin Matthew smiled to see Jacob beseiged by little girls demanding his attention the way Jacob used to do to him.
It was great to see Matthew's sisters Kara, back from her senior year at Brown, and Zena with her boyfriend, Lance, and her comical boston terrier, Roxie. Their dad, Young's brother, Demian said a simple, eloquent, grace that summed up our thankfulness. We really missed Lorraine, and Jacob Fenton who had to work, and Letty who was in LA with her family there, but my sister, Susan and her husband, Jeffrey, and Alex were all here where they belong.
Our friends Mike and Barbara joined us on their way home to Olympia after months of relief work on the gulf coast. Mike cut this from a letter that Barbara wrote to her daughter Tilden with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. It gives a feel of why she keeps coming back. With her permission I share it with you.
"“The past 10 days I've also been doing work in Cameron Parish - a Gulf shore community where Hurricane Rita came ashore. For 50 miles along the shore most human habitation has been almost completely erased: brick houses left only a pile of bricks, mobile homes a few pier blocks as the only trace, a beach house lot is now only sand with a large puddle in the middle, the high school a metal frame with wires dangling down where the flourescent fixtures once were - and nothing more.
“In the center of the town of Cameron, the storm surge (28 feet high) seems to have been damped by the oil tanks and larger commercial buildings so a few buildings are there, washed into the neighbors' yards, perhaps upended, their frames racked and broken, full of mud and sea grass. I keep wondering which would be worse to come home to.
“The people of Cameron Parish have been the best I have ever dealt with. Not one has been impatient, angry or unkind. Perhaps they always were kind and generous, but I think too the devastation has shocked them into a level of acceptance and sense of moral balance that those less impacted never got.
“They have lost everything but their family members and a handful of friends to count on. Suddenly those are the only important things in life, absolutely everything else has proved transient, effemeral.
I ask them to list the things they lost. After the first few items, most will shrug their shoulders and say "oh well, those things weren't that important".
"These people are living often with multiple other families also left homeless in the homes of friends whose singlewide mobilehome may only be habitable because FEMA tarped the destoyed roof. The family members they turn to for help also lost everything. They have no idea when this transcient existance will end or what their future will hold.
"After months in these stressful conditions, for the most part, they are not wringing each others necks but still holding each others hands.”
I forgot to ask Mike and Barbara for a picture from Cameron Parish, but maybe they'll email one.
And we are thankful to welcome another baby to the world - Bailey Grace Weldon was born yesterday at 2:53 in Santa Rosa.
# posted by Ann @ 10:35 PM 
