A Lakeview Story

Yesterday I got a phone call my 90 year old widowed great aunt. She called me by accident as she meant to dial the number above mine (another relative) in her address book. She was surprised when I answered the phone and was confused who I was initially. Once we got that straight I asked her how she was doing as I haven't talked to her since Christmas or so. A few things about my aunt. She was raised in the Irish Channel and since 1950 has lived in the same house in Lakeview located between Filmore and Robert E. Lee. She evacuated New Orleans before the storm--but reluctantly. Although located in one of the areas with deepest amount of floodwater in Lakeview she was able to retrieve nearly all of her possessions on the second floor of the house. The first floor and all of its of contents of course was a total loss.

Currently she is living in one of her children's houses in Lake Vista as her son and his family have relocated. She's in a large modern house which went unflooded in the storm--and she doesn't like it. She says she hears no dogs barking or no children playing in Lake Vista. She desperately wants to return to her salvageable Lakeview house of 56 years--which sits cleared out and gutted awaiting renovation. Her children have vetoed that option, and her house is currently under contract to be sold at the end of the month. If she was allowed to have her way, she'd have the house renovated and she'd move back in. Her kids tell her they have concerns she might be living there in complete isolation if she returned to her house as there may be no one around her on her street or on nearby streets. Her response: "That's how it was when we built the house in 1950--there was no one anywhere around us. Lakeview was desolate. I've already experienced that."

She doesn't care--at least she'd be in her house where she wants to be . . .



She also informed me that according to a conversation she had with one of the owner's of Lakeview Fine Foods that they intend to re-open in about three months (November/December). She says she misses that store so much, but looks forward to the new renovated and larger (they took over the West Marine space) store.

TAGS: Katrina, New Orleans, NOLA, Lakeview, Lakeview Fine Foods, We Are Not Ok