The Lighter Side of the Heavy Plate
After having an amazing interview with one of Norwich’s finest Heroes yesterday I wanted to share more about it. I could not add everything into my article or the entire first page would be one story. Her name is Alice pollock and she was a red cross volunteer in the wake of Katrina just a year ago. Her story was one of dignity, heroism, and bravery. Most of the country did not want to look at the devastation even on television and here she was right in the middle of it. Stationed in Mississippi, Alice took many pictures. She filled up an album and shared it with me. The book took my breath away. There are a couple pictures that I could not share in my story but they represent the lighter side of the devastation. There were pictures of signs that said “Half-time score: Katrina 1 Beauvoir 0 but the game is not over,” “make my day I’m insured..welcome to camp Gulfport trespassers will be shot. There was a pcture that brought a smile to alice’s face. It was of a truck that had been driven my looters being chased by the locals. The looters had kept driving on a raod that was out and ended up in the ditch from bumper to bumper the truck was stuck. “God works in mysterious ways” alice says. She says this often about a lot of things that she has encountered in her lifetime.
There were aerial pictures of blue tarps; the tarps represent roofs that no longer exist. In the pictures it is obvious to see where the water surges ended because there was absolutely nothing left, you can see the at what point the blue tarps start. The pictures were first hand and it was the simple ones that touched me. The ice cream truck that came to give the workers a treat, or the faces full of despair. I think what impressed me the most was Alice’s strength. She has a bad leg from an almost fatal accident but yet she gets out there are works 12-14 hour days to feed everyone she can; even the birds, as shown in one picture. After a three week tour of grueling, hell-like conditions Alice says she would go back in a heartbeat. Alice said she would find the simple pleasures of the areas where she worked such as a sunset to keep her going. She had one last memory to share but was regretful she had not taken a picture. Two older women came up to her, the one was happy as ever and she was holding something in her hand, looked up at Alice and said…
“Well Miss Alice I found my lamp! It was way down the street but I found it.. I don’t have a house but I have my lamp!” As the two walked away they were thrilled with their find as the one lady swung the lamp between them.
