More Than Just Things

Rose Brown proudly shows off pictures of her grandchildren, like one would expect any loving grandparent to do, but there’s one difference between her pictures and those of most grandparents.

None of the pictures in her house, no matter the subjects, are more than 10 years old. As Katrina’s flood waters rushed Brown’s Pass Christian home that was five feet above the ground to begin with, she went to nearby DeLisle with her cousin. Brown’s son Jeffery remained and watched the storm destroy their belongings inch by inch.

That day, August 28, 2005, Brown remembers she’d been ripping and running, enjoying herself. “We were used to having the little storms. They always make them seem like they’re going to be worse than they are. I had no idea it was going to be anything like it was.”

As he fought a losing battle with flood waters, Jeffrey learned first hand that it was no little storm. After the water had kidnapped Tiger, the cat, and reached the attic Jeffrey had climbed into leaving him no room to stand, his only options were to swim out of the house or drown.

By the time he miraculously escaped the expansive five-bedroom house through the front door, the water ripped off his sneakers, tattered his clothes and washed out his energy.

Everything was gone.

Brown says though she had insurance, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever get another home. She says of her connection with HOPE’s Home Again program, “They chose me. … God was good to me.” After further musing, she adds, “It was like a miracle because I didn’t think I was going to get another (house).” But she did because of HOPE’s Home Again Program. HOPE’s team took time to walk Brown through the complicated rebuilding effort to ensure she had a place to call home.

In her new home, Brown and her family have Sunday dinner together. She intended to have it once per month, but her seven grandchildren demand it more often, Quincy and Dylan, in particular, she says, as she points them out in a picture.