I picked up the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday and saw the picture of an old friend.
Unfortunately, the WSJ is one of those publications that charges for access to its stories, so I cannot link to the story. Luckily I can retell it myself without fear of copyright infringement because I know the people involved myself and heard the story from my own separate sources. The WSJ confirmed (with good reporting) what the grapevine has been telling me.
Marlene Perez (I use her real name, in opposition to my usual practice, because she is also named in the WSJ story) worked the front desk at my old office in Chalmette, Louisiana. She was a 20-year employee, first hired not by my partner and owner of the office, Dr. Bryan Bertucci, but by his father, the founder of the clinic. Thus, Marlene had worked at our clinic many years longer than any of the doctors had. She was, in many ways, the face and voice of our clinic. Many of our long-term patients knew Marlene long before they ever knew us, and trusted her at least as much.
Marlene is very energetic, likes to laugh, and was always playful and positive with the doctors. She is one of those exceptional middle-aged women who looks her age and is beautiful nonetheless. She had a newborn grandchild she could never stop talking about. Though always polite, Marlene could manage a crowded waiting room with a schoolmarmish curtness that usually left the staff amazed and the patients nonplussed.
When Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans, we suspended our normal office hours and all our employees left town. Marlene evacuated to her daughter’s house inland at Abita, LA. She left her mother behind. Not that she wanted to, but Marlene’s mother was a lifelong St. Bernard resident who had weathered many storms before and had no intention of letting Katrina be the exception. So her mother, with two of her sisters and a nephew, dug in at a house in Chalmette and waited for Katrina to come.
Marlene never heard from her mother again. I talked to Marlene about a month after the storm and by then she had given up her mother for dead. One of the aunts that stayed behind had been rescued 2 days after and died in a hospital in Baton Rouge. The other aunt, the oldest of the three, had also been rescued, and was still alive. Her mother was not rescued, and this was all Marlene knew.
Over the next few weeks, the story emerged. On August 29, Marlene’s mother, known to her family as Pee Wee, went to her nephew’s house in Chalmette to weather the hurricane. She was joined by two of her sisters, and her nephew, Louis. Katrina landed in the early morning hours, and everything was fine until about 8 am when the storm surge topped the levee in St. Bernard Parish. The water rose 12 feet in about 15 minutes. All four scrambled up the stairs in the home, and were able to put on life jackets. When the water began to reach the ceiling, they escaped out a window. Louis helped his mother and aunt escape, but his other aunt, Pee Wee, caught her vest on a fence.
The others made it to a tree in the yard, and held on for dear life until someone came by in a boat to pick them up. After the three got in the boat, they went back to the house to see if they could find Marlene’s mother. They found her, still stuck to the fence, drowned. Louis tried to pull the body into the boat, but when he reached for the body several water moccasins slithered out of her jacket. Afraid of the snakes, they decided to leave the body behind, tying a rope around Pee Wee’s waist and looping the other end around the chimney of the house.
A few days later, when authorities came back, they found the rope still tied to the chimney, but the body was gone. The body was recovered a few days later, but went unidentified for two months, lost in the morass of Katrina victims at the emergency morgue in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.
These were the facts I already knew. The Journal article added a few details. Louis, the article said, was helping the three women out of the house when Pee Wee got stuck on the fence. According to the article, Louis was right next to Pee Wee when she got stuck, and she screamed to him for help. Louis’s mother was clinging to him as he tried to swim to safety, and Louis asked his mother if she thought could make it on her own while he went back for Aunt Pee Wee. Louis's mother begged him not to let her go, telling him she would drown if he did. So Louis chose to help his mother to safety. Once he got her into the tree, the water had surged and he could not get back to Pee Wee.
Louis had to choose between his mother and his aunt. He chose his own mother, and Marlene’s mother died.
Marlene seems to have come to terms with what happened, and does not blame her cousin for his choice. From what I know of Marlene, I have no doubt she blames herself for leaving her mother behind more than anyone else.
As for Louis, I do not think it is fair to say that he made a fatal decision, a la Sophie’s Choice, between his mother and his aunt. On the contrary, he made the Doctor’s choice: Given the option of helping two people in an emergency, he chose to help the weaker of the two first, hoping the stronger one would survive long enough for him to come back and help her also. But only Louis knows the answer to that question.
Marlene remains in Abita Springs with her daughter. Like her mother, Marlene is a long-term resident of St. Bernard, and I know she wants to move back and rebuild. God willing that she has the chance.