Hitting home

I grew up in Houston. With immediate family born and raised in New Orleans, I spent many formidable years in this city. The food, the music and my family were all intertwined. Katrina completely displaced my Aunt, Uncle and both of my cousins. My Uncle was a New Orleanian for over three generations and was devastated from losing a place that was part of his soul. Speaking with them about their experience, I had an idea of how slow the rebuilding process has been, but I had no idea how vast the devastation really was. Seeing the expanse of devastation and their neighborhood while on the tour was incredibly hard for me. They tried to return but eventually left when they realized the length of time it would take to get the city back, if at all. After seeing it, I felt so much pain for them and cannot imagine what it was like to make that final decision to give up on their history.