Classic Ana, originally uploaded by fieldsofgarlic.

We just celebrated nine years of togetherness. I'm still totally in love with this amazing woman.

I took this picture because the light was nice. We were sitting in an IHOP in Jackson, Mississippi, waiting for our food.

We celebrated our anniversary in Jackson for several reasons, not the least of which was that Ana wanted to go to Saints Training Camp.

I look forward to other surprises over the next nine years.

Today's the 39th anniversary of my birth!

"Helen Hill" by Dave Cash (2:08, 2.2Mb)



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Helen [Am]Hill was shot and [C]killed
In her [Am]own home last [F]night
On the [C]fourth day of a [G]new year
That [E7]still seemed so [Am]bright
Her [F]dreams were cut [C]short
When that [E7]nightmare creeped [Am]in
And [F]took sweet [C]Helen
From her [G]family and [C]friends

Helen [Am]Hill was shot and [C]killed
For no [Am]reason we [F]know
She [C]fought and she [G]pleaded
But he [E7]still laid her [Am]low
[F]Down went the [C]kindness
[E7]Down went the [Am]care
[C]Out went the [G]love
With her [F]last breath of [Am]air

I [Am]dreamed I [C]saw
[Am]Helen Hill last [F]night
She was [C]smiling and [G]shining
Like a [E7]heavenly [Am]light
Bright [F]words she was [C]sewing
Right [E7]into the [Am]sky
[F]Flickering in [C]starlight,
"[G]I didn't [C]die."

Helen [Am]Hill was shot and [C]killed
A dear [Am]mother and [F]wife
The [C]last thing she [G]ever did
Was to [E7]save her boy's [Am]life
So [F]what are we [C]made of
If we [E7]don't do our [Am]best
To [C]reach into the [G]darkness
And [F]save all the [Am]rest?

In the sixth murder New Orleans murder in less than a day, a woman was killed and her husband shot in their home this morning at about 5:30 a.m., said New Orleans police, who found the bleeding husband kneeling at the door of the couple's home, holding their two-year-old son in his arms.

The toddler was not hurt; the husband, 35, underwent surgery at Elmwood/Charity Trauma Center, police said, where his son was also taken for examination. The woman, 36, was pronounced dead at the scene.

...

-- At 5:30 a.m. Thursday, police were called to the Rampart Street killing. Neighbors of the couple later identified them as Helen Hill and Paul Gailiunas, a married couple who first came to the city more than a decade ago, and just moved back in August after a post-Katrina exile in South Carolina. The neighbors said Gailiunas was a doctor and Hill a freelance animator and filmmaker.

It's been a year since Hurricane Katrina hammered the Gulf Coast. Today, in New Orleans, it's a different kind of hammering you hear. Never in the history of this country have there been so many people in one place working so hard to put their lives back together.

On August 29, 2005, a group of us who had evacuated to Memphis were watching the events of that awful day unfold. With the storm over the city, we had lost telephone contact with our loved ones who had stayed behind. When we went to sleep that night, we were worried, but believed New Orleans had dodged a bullet. Power was out everywhere, the streets were full of downed trees, and many roofs had been damaged, but at least the levees hadn't breached. We thought would soon be returning home.

But early the next morning we learned that the worst had in fact come to pass: water was pouring into our city through several gashes in its defenses. My stomach dropped. That was a moment we will never forget, the lowest point in an odyssey of sadness that was to come. Everything changed. We knew we wouldn't be going home anytime soon.

Our Memphis group split up. Some headed west and the rest of us headed north, rolling in to my mother's driveway in Savoy just after dark on Wednesday, August 31.

There were five of us in that first wave and the loving care my mother showed us was just a foreshadowing of the kindness we would be shown in the months to come. After enrolling our nephew in school at Bottenfield Elementary, we spent the next several days on edge, watching the disastrous response to the needs of our fellow New Orleanians and waiting anxiously to hear from our loved ones who stayed behind.

By the next week, we had reunited with our New Orleans family members, six of whom had made the long drive north in a 20-year-old, tiny, compact car. Our guardian angel in Savoy housed eleven of us for almost two weeks. After that, we found apartments in Champaign and settled in for a stay of unknown length.

We couldn't have landed in a better place. Everyone--from social services, to chuches, to family, friends and strangers--went out of their way to help us. The outpouring of kindness met at every turn was humbling. Champaign-Urbana and Savoy opened their arms and we are forever grateful.

We made several trips back to New Orleans during the fall to begin the work on emptying, gutting and repairing the flooded floor of our house. We were lucky that much of our house was still habitable. Having a stable base back in central Illinois was essential to our progress. In the last days of December, three of us said goodbye to Champaign and moved back to our home in New Orleans. Seven of our family decided to stay in Champaign and Urbana. Today they call your communities their home.

Since then, life has been up and down here. Mardi Gras was a joyous, cathartic celebration that we all very much needed. Jazz Fest was amazing and uplifting, as usual. But day-to-day life here can be taxing. The scope of this disaster is awesome. You can drive for miles and miles and not escape the destruction. 80% of New Orleans was flooded. It's sad to drive down once beautiful avenues and see so many people living in small, white travel trailers in their front yards.

And some days, it's the frustration. The Army Corps of Engineers has taken responsibility for the flood, citing their own poor designs as the cause. And the flood, not the hurricane, is what did the most damage to the city. This was a man-made disaster, yet no one is being held accountable.

But we continue because we love this great American city and we believe it will one day be great again. It's character has not been lost, despite the current shape it's in. And knowing that so many people out there in the world care about us helps us go on.

The support your community showed us last fall not only buoyed us through our darkest hours, but also continues to sustain us through the work we have left to do. Nothing is more powerful than love and yours means more to us than you will ever know.