It's been nearly 2 years now since hurricane Katrina broke the Lake Pontchartrain levee 8 blocks from our home and business in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. Fortunately, having lived in south Louisiana for 30 years, we had enough experience with hurricanes to know to leave before it hit. The day before Katrina, one of, if not the worst natural disaster in US history, was the end of roughly 40 years of work, business, pastimes, personal relationships and our home. It's still hard to get my mind around the fact that we lost everything we ever had except, thank God, in our case, our kids and pets.
So we wind up here. The place where my 2 sisters live, hoping to start our lives all over and not knowing what's going to happen next.
Here's what we did. We rented an apartment and got on the phone. We called all our business contacts and with the exception of one, they genuinely came to our rescue with merchandise and dating terms and the willingness to help us get our business back on it's feet. Within 3 months we were back up and running with a new business location and boxing, shipping and selling again to our loyal customers and I have to say, business has never been better. The incredible amount of hard work it took for my wife Laurel and I to restart our lives, plus the hard work and helping hands offered by our business friends and you our customers seem even now in retrospect, an overwhelming task.
We're happy in our new home and with Gods help, we are looking forward to several more years of doing what we love. We haven't looked back.
We are survivors.
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