Today I had the refrigerator, washer and dryer serviced. All of them are working fine, but I learned several years ago that included in the service warranty is a yearly checkup and I believe in preventive medicine.

I pointed out to the refrigerator man that a blue bird was eating French Mulberry right outside my kitchen window. After accusing me of living "out in the country", I found out that he lives in New Orleans. Of course he flooded and now he is back in his house, in a manner of speaking. He has a bedroom, a bathroom, a hot plate, and a small refrigerator. The rest of the house is still gutted. We are in the sixteen month after the storm.

Next the washer/dryer man came. He just moved to my town after 14 months in a FEMA trailer. Prior to the storm he lived in St. Bernard parish. We got to talking about how many new patients my husband and I have gotten from "da parish" (St. Bernard). My husband had family in St. Bernard and the name recognition brought him lots of new patients in the first months after the storm. It was terribly hard on him and not just because he listened to all their stories. The hardest thing is how many of the older folks died in the first six to twelve months after the flood. So many of them told my husband that they had no reason to stay in this world. They had lost everything, their families had to move and this world had no more attraction for them. They just gave up living and got cancer, heart attacks, strokes etc. The poor washer man teared up and talked to me about his folks. Last week FEMA called them and asked them when they would be done using their trailer. His mother responded that she was 82 years old and planned to die in the trailer. Now she is checking that all her bills are paid, the burial policy is up to date and her poor son is at his wits' end.

How can it be that in America a Sear's workman is living in a gutted house with only two functioning rooms and minimal modern amenities? How can it be that in America senior citizens who have been contributing members of society all their life have lost all hope for anything more than ending their life in a FEMA camper trailer? Please tell me that we are more than that.