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Visited
Home on Monday
Conversation After the Flood
With Jerry Ward, Miriam Mona Lisa Tue, 20 Sep 2005 16:01:31
EDT
Dear Mona Lisa & Jerry,
Today I talked with Karen Green, a Dillard
professor who knows you, and she told me that Dillard is paying
its faculty.
Apparently, her sister, who is in Houston,
has direct deposit and received her salary, but Karen doesn't
have dd. She had to call the following number--1 (877)
888-0100--to give them her address. She also gave me the
e-mail address of the provost (?), which is bparker Smith@yahoo.com.
She said there's a space in the middle of the name, but that
doesn't look right to me.
Karen is in Natchez with her parents.
I hope that you are doing
better this week than last.
Take care,
Miriam
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Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:05:11 -0500
Dear Miriam and Mona Lisa,
Since I had direct deposit, Dillard did put
my final August check in the bank; I'll have to go online to see
if there was a September 15 deposit. Dillard now has a new
websit: www.dillard.edu which contains updated news and
other information. When I talked with Dean Taylor last
week, there was a strong possibility that Dillard would offer
classes in January from the Morris Brown campus. That would be
an historically noteworthy happening.
I have an apartment in Vicksburg and am doing
some volunteer teaching at Tougaloo College as my alumni gift.
Working with students also prevents my falling into self-pity
about what I may have lost in New Orleans. Doing a two-week
seminar at Grinnell College (24 Oct-4 Nov) will also help.
I am working on various entries about the disaster and my oddly
convoluted states of mind and my brain walking a tightrope to
somewhere under the title "THE KATRINA PAPERS." Let us
pray we do not have to add a "RITA CODA."
Mona Lisa, it would be good if John Lowe and
the LSU English Department could sponsor a Red Beans &
Ricely Yours party for you next month or in November.
I am sure those of us who are in driving distance would come for
the celebration.
Love,
Jerry
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Visited Home on Monday
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 2:40 PM
Hey now Jerry and Miriam,
If you don't know, I've accepted a Visiting
Assoc. Prof. position at the University of Washington
for the year. They begin school next Wednesday; I need
the job so I can keep my property.
Y'all, I visited New Orleans on Monday. Ishmael
Reed's words are more than on target. My beloved New Orleans
is a ghost town, like the abandoned towns of the old west, empty,
dead, no grass, nothing growing, no one there. Jerry, can
you imagine Dillard with all dead grass? That's what's
there, deadness, and the surrounding homes were flooded like mine.
I salvaged a few clothes, some research, my soggy Kaufman books
since I'd like to finish that work and get it to a publisher.
Everything is ruined, my library, even my clothes--the smell is
unimaginable; already, I've washed them again and again, hoping to
at least recover my jeans and some shirts. Some fine things
are in the dry cleaner, and because everything floated around, I
couldn't get to my winter coat. All my shoes are gone, my
beautiful kitchen and new bedroom; I had just renovated last year.
How can we all rebuild at once? At least, in my
neighborhood, our old shotgun homes are still standing. In
the East, it is more of a war zone with massive damage to most
every home and more extensive flooding. It was horrible.
Even if Dillard opens in January, who will be there, who will come
into this?
I'm exhausted, and trying to get everything in
order before flying out on Friday, the 23rd of Sept.
I'll get together, with my sister Barbara too,
who lives in Seattle as well, one great reason to pick that
place. I have so much to be thankful for since daily I see
so many without jobs or a place to go. God help us all.
Please keep in touch. Hugs to you both.
Red Beans and Ricely Thankful and Hopeful,
Mona Lisa
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005 4:55 PM
Rudy, Mona Lisa was one of the first
persons whom I contacted, and I knew that you were worried about
her. This is so sad, and it's like so many of the stories
that are coming out of New Orleans: everything lost, in
shambles, moldy and mildewed. How can a person go back to
that? Maybe M. L. can because (I think) she's young and will
have the energy to undertake the monumental job of rebuilding, but
what about the aged and sick and disheartened and clinically
depressed? -- Miriam |
