Please be understanding about this

Several have emailed me about wanting to send Lee "things: from Amazon and
overstock dot com. They will be living in a hotel for quite sometime and
have no place to store stuff.

Money would be better and you guys have heard Lee talk enough that you know
she will get the best bang for the buck. She has certain colors and such
she prefers so she can sort laundry herself.

She will kill me for telling you that money is best but, it is.

Can you imagine sitting down with pen and paper and literally "starting
over/: A lot will depend on the type of house they end up with.

"Granby" wrote in message
...
Several have emailed me about wanting to send Lee "things: from Amazon and
overstock dot com. They will be living in a hotel for quite sometime and
have no place to store stuff.

Money would be better and you guys have heard Lee talk enough that you
know she will get the best bang for the buck. She has certain colors and
such she prefers so she can sort laundry herself.

She will kill me for telling you that money is best but, it is.

Can you imagine sitting down with pen and paper and literally "starting
over/: A lot will depend on the type of house they end up with.


Please email me. My address isn't munged. I'd like to send her something
but I don't know where.

Jill

"Granby" wrote in message
...
Several have emailed me about wanting to send Lee "things: from Amazon and
overstock dot com. They will be living in a hotel for quite sometime and
have no place to store stuff.

Money would be better and you guys have heard Lee talk enough that you
know she will get the best bang for the buck. She has certain colors and
such she prefers so she can sort laundry herself.

She will kill me for telling you that money is best but, it is.

Can you imagine sitting down with pen and paper and literally "starting
over/: A lot will depend on the type of house they end up with.

Yes, I can very much understand about starting over with NOTHING - not even
a community around you with a hotel, or a convenience store to buy water, or
a job to go to because it was also destroyed, or a hospital to go to if
you're injured, no electricity/gas/water within a 300 mile radius, no place
to stay while you try to rebuild our house, your very life. Every member of
my family, and all my friends faced that (Ben and I were the only ones who
had moved out of St. Bernard to Houston).

Please Granby, I know we've had our differences, and I'm not trying to play
"my disaster is worse than yours". But I had my whole family living with me
for 6 months before they could even BEGIN to go back and try to clean up
after Katrina, dodging houses in the middle of the street, cars and trucks
balanced on fences or house rooftops, gulf shrimp and sludge 2 feet thick on
your floors, and toxic mold on every surface within a 300 mile radius. You
have to leave you children 600 miles away because it's too dangerous for
them to be at the site of a disaster. St. Bernard has the "distinct"
privilege to be the only community in America to be entirely wiped out to
the very last house, gas station, or business by a natural disaster.

My point to all this is, again, not to try and compare pain in the face of
disaster, but to say that today my daughter is living in a beautiful "new"
home (plus the fact that she and her husband learned EVERY ASPECT of how to
build a house from the ground up - including electricity, plumbing, gas
lines, etc. because there was, of course, no contractors or materials
available to get help from).

Watching that triumph of the human spirit, courage, and sheer
bull-headedness and determination in the face of the (almost) ultimate
tragedy was so uplifting and amazing that it still blows my mind to think of
it.

Then last year, something even worse happened. My 17-year-old granddaughter
was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (I still believe that the tainted
ground water is causing a rise in cancers to otherwise very healthy people).
The piddling task of restoring your life from scratch immediately became as
nothing. And still, the first thought of these amazing people was, to first
cry, but then to roll up their sleeves and fight an even greater fight than
before - AND WIN!!!

Why all this rambling? Well I'm feeling a bit maudlin right now for reasons
I'll probably go into when I feel stronger (I'm down to 91 pounds and don't
have the strength to walk to the bathroom).

The reason is that I'll hope you let Lee read this to let her know she can
overcome ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL!!!!

And also know that the people here are the kindest, most understanding,
generous, amazing friends she could have in a time like this. I can't tell
you how many tears of gratitude I cried when new clothes, toys, books,
money, cards from those who couldn't afford money, support and more came
pouring in to help - if nothing else (but which there was) the show of moral
support helped us lift ourselves up and start again fresh. One man who I
had never met, but who had served time in the marines with my brother about
40 years ago sent us two checks for $2,000 each! My grandchildren had a
Christmas that I couldn't have given them (having 9 people and 10 animals to
suddenly care for, and giving my daughter every dime we had in life savings
did dinkus for our budget).

Anyway, just let Lee know that she's not alone, it's not as bad as it can
get, and she can get through this if she just keeps her chin up and keeps on
keeping on.

P.S. Kyla, I'm asking this with all the best intent and generosity that I
can muster... please do not reply to this post - I can not tolerate the
emotions generated if you do - please, please, pretty please?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See our clowder at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

"CatNipped" wrote

Welcome back my friend! We were all worried about you.

P.S. Also have Lee consider this. For weeks and weeks after Katrina we had
no way to know if my brother and several other family members were dead or
alive, having stayed in St. Bernard during Katina. You think losing
*things* is bad? Try going that long not knowing whether your loved ones
are still among the living or one of the thousands who lost there lives...
as much as it creeped me out of my mind, we looked at every single picture
of every bloated, rotting corpse floating in the waters for *months*
afterwards because there were no way to get in and respectfully recover the
bodies. Trying to recognize a feature or clothes in the almost
unidentifiable corpse just to *know*!


--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See our clowder at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/




"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
"Granby" wrote in message
...
Several have emailed me about wanting to send Lee "things: from Amazon
and overstock dot com. They will be living in a hotel for quite sometime
and have no place to store stuff.

Money would be better and you guys have heard Lee talk enough that you
know she will get the best bang for the buck. She has certain colors and
such she prefers so she can sort laundry herself.

She will kill me for telling you that money is best but, it is.

Can you imagine sitting down with pen and paper and literally "starting
over/: A lot will depend on the type of house they end up with.

Yes, I can very much understand about starting over with NOTHING - not
even a community around you with a hotel, or a convenience store to buy
water, or a job to go to because it was also destroyed, or a hospital to
go to if you're injured, no electricity/gas/water within a 300 mile
radius, no place to stay while you try to rebuild our house, your very
life. Every member of my family, and all my friends faced that (Ben and I
were the only ones who had moved out of St. Bernard to Houston).

Please Granby, I know we've had our differences, and I'm not trying to
play "my disaster is worse than yours". But I had my whole family living
with me for 6 months before they could even BEGIN to go back and try to
clean up after Katrina, dodging houses in the middle of the street, cars
and trucks balanced on fences or house rooftops, gulf shrimp and sludge 2
feet thick on your floors, and toxic mold on every surface within a 300
mile radius. You have to leave you children 600 miles away because it's
too dangerous for them to be at the site of a disaster. St. Bernard has
the "distinct" privilege to be the only community in America to be
entirely wiped out to the very last house, gas station, or business by a
natural disaster.

My point to all this is, again, not to try and compare pain in the face of
disaster, but to say that today my daughter is living in a beautiful "new"
home (plus the fact that she and her husband learned EVERY ASPECT of how
to build a house from the ground up - including electricity, plumbing, gas
lines, etc. because there was, of course, no contractors or materials
available to get help from).

Watching that triumph of the human spirit, courage, and sheer
bull-headedness and determination in the face of the (almost) ultimate
tragedy was so uplifting and amazing that it still blows my mind to think
of it.

Then last year, something even worse happened. My 17-year-old
granddaughter was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (I still believe
that the tainted ground water is causing a rise in cancers to otherwise
very healthy people). The piddling task of restoring your life from
scratch immediately became as nothing. And still, the first thought of
these amazing people was, to first cry, but then to roll up their sleeves
and fight an even greater fight than before - AND WIN!!!

Why all this rambling? Well I'm feeling a bit maudlin right now for
reasons I'll probably go into when I feel stronger (I'm down to 91 pounds
and don't have the strength to walk to the bathroom).

The reason is that I'll hope you let Lee read this to let her know she can
overcome ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL!!!!

And also know that the people here are the kindest, most understanding,
generous, amazing friends she could have in a time like this. I can't
tell you how many tears of gratitude I cried when new clothes, toys,
books, money, cards from those who couldn't afford money, support and more
came pouring in to help - if nothing else (but which there was) the show
of moral support helped us lift ourselves up and start again fresh. One
man who I had never met, but who had served time in the marines with my
brother about 40 years ago sent us two checks for $2,000 each! My
grandchildren had a Christmas that I couldn't have given them (having 9
people and 10 animals to suddenly care for, and giving my daughter every
dime we had in life savings did dinkus for our budget).

Anyway, just let Lee know that she's not alone, it's not as bad as it can
get, and she can get through this if she just keeps her chin up and keeps
on keeping on.

P.S. Kyla, I'm asking this with all the best intent and generosity that I
can muster... please do not reply to this post - I can not tolerate the
emotions generated if you do - please, please, pretty please?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See our clowder at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
"CatNipped" wrote

Welcome back my friend! We were all worried about you.

Thank you Carol, and much thanks for your "restraint" in ascp! ;

Even OG surprised me (until he took it all back again, of course -
ROTFLMAO)! Oh well, do a stupid thing but don't expect praise for it.


--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See our clowder at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

CatNipped wrote:
P.S. Also have Lee consider this. For weeks and weeks after Katrina we had
no way to know if my brother and several other family members were dead or
alive, having stayed in St. Bernard during Katina. You think losing
*things* is bad? Try going that long not knowing whether your loved ones
are still among the living or one of the thousands who lost there lives...
as much as it creeped me out of my mind, we looked at every single picture
of every bloated, rotting corpse floating in the waters for *months*
afterwards because there were no way to get in and respectfully recover the
bodies. Trying to recognize a feature or clothes in the almost
unidentifiable corpse just to *know*!


Lee also lost her cat, Tiger, you're being very insensitive Lori.

--
Adrian (Owned by Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

"Adrian" wrote in message
om...
CatNipped wrote:
P.S. Also have Lee consider this. For weeks and weeks after Katrina we
had no way to know if my brother and several other family members were
dead or alive, having stayed in St. Bernard during Katina. You think
losing *things* is bad? Try going that long not knowing whether your
loved ones are still among the living or one of the thousands who lost
there lives... as much as it creeped me out of my mind, we looked at
every single picture of every bloated, rotting corpse floating in the
waters for *months* afterwards because there were no way to get in and
respectfully recover the bodies. Trying to recognize a feature or
clothes in the almost unidentifiable corpse just to *know*!


Lee also lost her cat, Tiger, you're being very insensitive Lori.

Yes, Adrian, I know she did and my heart goes out to her because of it (gawd
knows we've all been there). But as badly as that hurts, it is not the same
as possibly losing 7 family members at the same time - my brother, my niece
and her husband, their two children, and two cousins. Watching every
floating, bloated, rotting coprses (this on the internet where there was no
censorship for the faint-hearted), hoping against hope to NOT see someone
you love is so much worse than losing my heart cat, Bandit, it's ridiculous.

Please... I in no way meant this to be insensitive - just the opposite, I
was trying to be encouraging and let her know that no how bad it gets, she
can get through this and feel normal again (something that never occurs to
you when you're in the middle of it).

Oh well, that's how my life's been going lately - try to help and get kicked
down again.

My apologies, and PLEASE let's not start a flamewar in this thread. Adrian
is a dear friend of many years and he doesn't deserve any flak for simply
stating an opinion.


--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See our clowder at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/





--
Adrian (Owned by Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

CatNipped wrote:


Anyway, just let Lee know that she's not alone, it's not as bad as it can
get, and she can get through this if she just keeps her chin up and keeps on
keeping on.



Welcome back girlfriend. Please take care of yourself. We love you.

Pam S

"Adrian" wrote in message
om...
CatNipped wrote:
P.S. Also have Lee consider this. For weeks and weeks after Katrina we
had no way to know if my brother and several other family members were
dead or alive, having stayed in St. Bernard during Katina. You think
losing *things* is bad? Try going that long not knowing whether your
loved ones are still among the living or one of the thousands who lost
there lives... as much as it creeped me out of my mind, we looked at
every single picture of every bloated, rotting corpse floating in the
waters for *months* afterwards because there were no way to get in and
respectfully recover the bodies. Trying to recognize a feature or
clothes in the almost unidentifiable corpse just to *know*!


Lee also lost her cat, Tiger, you're being very insensitive Lori.

--
Adrian (Owned by Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk



Lori, I'm sorry for all you and your family have been through. But
Hurricane Katrina was in 2004 and this is 2010. The world has had other
disasters and people have had other losses. Lee just lost her house and
everything she owned to a fire. And her beloved cat Tiger died. So get
over friggin Katrina already. Have some compassion for what is going on in
the here and now. Understand Lee and her two days ago loss, please.

Jill