For my birthday this year, I found myself in New Orleans. My friend had Wade had moved there only two weeks before Ms. Katrina also thought it might be a great place to hang. Wade lived four blocks from a levee break, and was not allowed back in the city until the week of my birthday. Of course I went to help with my van, because I believed no one I loved should face that alone. 
What we found was utter devastation when I try to describe it to people I fall woefully short of words. We had a very limited time to salvage anything we could, so armed with plastic gloves, face masks, big rubber boots, and all the plastic trash bags and dry boxes we could find we set to packing up what could be cleaned and kept of his previous life. This picture is of his bedroom as we found it. As you can imagine, not much was salvageable.
Everything was
covered in a slushy, messy goo from weeks of being underwater, and every surface covered in an even worst smelling mold. Luckily, because Wade lived on a second floor we were able to salvage some things. In our hurry to search and pack everything a water soaked box broke, scattering all kinds of small toys and pins across the squishy carpet. In the middle of the mess I found this frigidaire pin in good shape even though it was covered in slime. I asked Wade if I could keep it as a souvenir, and when I arrived home I cleaned it and placed it on my alter.
This is on my alter to remind me that no matter how bad any situation in life gets, there is always something to salvage from it if you are still alive. Thanks for my best birthday ever Wade. Even if we didn't have air conditioning we had Frigidaire :)
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