Coming Home - by Cassandra

I have been trying to corner Cassandra all week long enough to take her picture, see how she is doing, what she thinks. She is, after all, a very instrumental part of getting many of us here. And she is the one with the closest ties to Mississippi, having grown up here, educated here (through college undergrad), played here, prayed here. I finally gave her my laptop one night after she was headed for bed (her cot is just a couple of feet from my air mattress) and asked her to write.

Coming Home

As we drove along the beach from the airport on our first day here, I looked to my right to see the sparkling water of the Mississippi Gulf and seagulls in the distance. But, it’s not the same scene that I remember from years past. Things are different now. The beautiful homes that I once could see on my left consist primarily of front steps that lead to nowhere. The beachfront is now void of sailboats, beach umbrellas and children playing in the sand. I have found myself crying with others here, not only for the destruction that surrounds us, but also for times past - days of family outings, merry-go-round rides on the Biloxi beach, and "crab trapping"in Pass Christian. Things have changed and they will never be the same again. Cassandra 1-23-06

Cassandra has partially worked through her grief for the destruction and the people here by working incredibly hard. Stoddard told me on Monday when I was working at the Bay St. Louis location to watch Cassandra and make sure she doesn't work too hard. Hard to do, as she is a self-described "flea", fltting here and there, not londing in one place for very long. There is much she wants to accomplish in the Main Street Methodist Day Care center which has become Cassandra's pet project. Yesterday, I dropped in again on the project, this time to take photos rather than sand and clean and stain doors, which I had done on Monday. Scroll down to see the photos.