Thoughts of my friend, Renee

Many of you may know someone whose life has been affected and altered by Katrina. The photos in the news are incredible but don't really give a true picture of the people who are living through this ordeal. I happen to know one of these displaced New Orleans residents. I had the pleasure of initially meeting her online, via a Yahoo board. Her name is Renee K. Like me, she was heading to Provo in August to attend CKU-Albums. Like me, she was going to meet up with a crazy group of ladies (some for the first time) and make some lifelong friends. Like me, she is passionate about her scrapbooking and sharing memories with her loved ones. Unlike me, she and her DH are now living hundreds of miles away from the place she calls home. Forced to evacuate her hometown of New Orleans. She left with only the few belongings that she could fit in her vehicle...and 4 dogs (two 150 pound Leonbergers, a Brussels Griffon and a mutt). The other vehicle carried her DH, daughter, and a friend's cat. One thing she also carried with her - something you could not see if you peered through the windows of her Suburban - is her incredible spirit!

After many days of worrying about her, we recently heard from Renee. Hopefully, she won't mind if I share a part of an email she sent to our group of scrapping friends. This section pretty much sums up what an incredible lady she is. As I said, her incredible spirit lives on:

I started this and meant it to be funny and light and my usual sort of bullshit - but I just couldn't do that immediately - so I will finish this up with these few words... (Like I have ever done anything in a few words!). Ok -

I have been trying to downsize for years - but I agree, this is a little drastic.

I have never been crazy about our house but the good news is that I can now build what I want with fabulous storage and closet space. Bad news is we have nothing to put into it now.

All of our momentos of travels - are gone. The good news -the memories are not.

The bad news - we are homeless, the good news, we have many wonderful friends who have offered us shelter - homes what ever. Better news (for them) we aren't taking them up on it!

Good news - my daughters talked me into a day a way from CNN and the hotel. They took me to a beauty salon. Bad news is that my hair cut completes the homeless look as I probably could have done the same thing with toe nail clippers. Have the kids not learned by now I am not hip??? Every time I look in the mirror all I can think of is - "I need to get a hair cut!". Good news is - I didn't let these guys do my color!

Bad news is that my husband is stuck here with three women in various stages of hormonal flux - Good news is that we have two hotel rooms and he is in one by himself with the cat.

As I said, an incredible lady. Wouldn't you agree?

"Gotta Do It" challenge: I'm sure you all know Renee - or someone like her. A friend or family member whom you look up to. Someone who you would like to be more like. Capture on paper how you feel about your Renee (or Sarah or Jacob or...). And don't forget to embellish with a HUG!