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Overcoming ‘the end of the world’ in Pearlington
THE BRIDGES IS BACK!
BY BENNIE SHALLBETTER Staff Writer
Like most of us along the stretch of Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina, Pearlington residents Pat and Harry Wilson could not measure the value of their material possessions with a dollar sign.
"Everything we had in this house belonged to someone I loved," Pat Wilson said. "Parents, grand parents, great grandparents. All the thing* -we pkmned to leave for our children are gone."
"We loved books and the walls were lined with them, some first editions. Our friends have replaced books on the shelves, but of course they are not our books-the ones we loved. One survived-I made it sur-vive-a leather-bound book of poems."
The Wilson's home of 50 years did not survive either, landing in three topsy turvy pieces across their property. "I wouldn't have given you fifty cents on ten-to-one odds that the house could have been repaired," said Pat.
The house had been covered by flood waters and the furniture and all its contents lay tangled in a jumbled mess inside. But a dedicated group of local volunteers, lead by Larry Randall and Herb Ritchie worked hard to match the Wilsons with other help groups who were able to restore the old home to a miraculous resemblance of its former self. In fact, to the casual observer, it is hard to believe that the house was damaged at all.
The Wilsons themselves, along with three cats and two dogs, survived the storm in the attic of their daughter Elizabeth's home on DeMonthizin St. in Bay St. Louis. Their five pet goats survived on a bam roof only to perish at the hands of a pack of abandoned and hungry dogs after the storm.
About five days after the storm the Wilsons' son Michael was able to get through to Bay St. Louis and drive his par-
ents out to see their home.
"It was like the end of the world, our world," said Pat.
The couple moved back to their property in a FEMA trailer. Because it was their home of fiftv years, they knew thev would stay.
Like everyone in town, they made their way to the Pearlington Recovery Center for food, water and an empa-thetic shoulder to cry on if needed, hoping everyone to find the help they needed to rebuff their lives.
When a group nt unteers calling themselves "Picking Up the Pieces" asked for something to do between Christmas and the New Year, Randall jumped at the chance to match the group with Pat and Harry.
" I said I got plenty for you to do. Follow me. And I brought them here," said Randall. I knew they would fall in love with the Wilsons."
Within a month. Pat said, she and Harry were able to move inside, even though the house was far from finished. After "Picking Up the Pieces" finished initial work, other groups followed, volunteers from St James Episcopal and more.
"A mob of people from Jackson, doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs, finished up the inside work," Wilson said. "I kept a journal and at times the house was filled with people."
The result is nothing short of a miracle, with details down to the bead board walls restored. Friends prov ided framed copies e some of the couple n photographs of which they had copies: an elderly woman moving into a nursing home donated beautiful furniture; the couple were able to save a piece or two that they had repaired.
The jumbled muddy
gratelul as the Wii*on.s f.fP' all the help. the^T”
,.; i ■; ii. .v.
a-'Mtu'ii. Pieces ot a cherished piano, belonging to Pat's mother, rem-nents of her riverboat minstrel days, was transformed into a mantle piece. A Mokshelf, a table, v.. r,- washed and glued together.
h Pat said, like c erv.me else she learned .; valuable lesson from the storm.
You don't count what you lost. Everything important is sitting behind me with those old blue eyes," she said of Harry.
"I don't take everything for granted anymore, life or material possessions." said Harry.
The most valuable lesson Randall has learned, he said, is that there are a w hole lot of people in the world who love other people.
"Before this I would have never thought of
WILSONS-PAGE 18
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