Week One, Day Six

Friday ...
This will be the last day for the first team – but I’ll be back in just nine days. I’m REALLY glad that I’ll be returning so soon because it means that there’s a good possibility I’ll be able to work on Miss Dickson’s home again … and ok yes, maybe I’ll get another hug, too. Plus I’ll have time to find the words to say goodbye to Jim and Nancy P. and their amazing team. Maybe by Friday, November 17th on the last visit, I’ll have figured out something that will adequately express it all.

We get our assignment and head to 207 Elmer … but there’s no home there to work on. Maybe Jim got something mixed up? There’s a small patch of flowers on the side of the road by a trailer and a sign on the mailbox that reads “The Reddix’s”.

In 1942, Cora Reddix and her husband began farming their land and sold their produce locally in East Biloxi. They moved once but only to the home directly across the street which, judging by the foundation we’re looking at, was about the same square footage as two large conference rooms in a business office.

After she lost her husband, Miss Cora stayed in that same home, ‘tho she couldn’t continue to farm. There is a small power station literally next door to her land and the train tracks are across the street.

After Katrina moved on, the Reddix home no longer existed … so what we’re looking at here is a plot of land and a foundation layout of concrete

– the same concrete that Eva and Kerry Ann worked over on Tuesday with crow bars and hammers. Miss Cora worked with a contractor that she trusted but he turned out to be a thief. He earned the nickname “Hurricane Joe” and he worked whole neighborhoods out of any money that may have been coming their way. He’s doing time now – but Miss Cora’s life savings is long gone. The cost of her new home – about $29,000 – is a number that’s probably too big for her to grasp at this point. She just wants her home back.

Her daughter, who appears to be in her mid 60’s, comes out of their trailer to talk with us. She’s in good spirits as she looks us over, and we begin to move concrete foundation blocks around the new outline to begin the traditional raised foundation of their home. She gives us a smile and makes us laugh when she says “You little girls think you can do all this?”

I may have had doubts on the evening of October 1st, but I have NO doubts only five days later.Damn straight we can do all this … and we can do a whole lot more, too.

We get one final photo before we call it a day and hit the showers … “Jim with his girls”.