Gustav brings back memories of both happy and sad times
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Huntsville Times

It had to be Karma. "New Orleans Ladies...They sashay by, they sashay by." This song played on my car radio, on the third anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina.

I chuckled as the tears flowed. I think my friend Nell would have too.

Nellyn Davis was one of the uncounted victims of Hurricane Katrina. I think she would have thought it a hoot to have had this music played as her pall-decked coffin left the church after her funeral: Her final move.

After her retirement and until the big one hit, Nell lived in and near the French Quarter in New Orleans. She loved it. She was all about music (jazz) and civil rights/responsibilities( eracism.
When the news services warned of the coming Hurricane Katrina, Nell and husband, Albert, packed up for a planned weekend trip to visit daughter Lisa here in Huntsville.

They only brought enough clothes for the weekend that they expected to be away from their home. They thought the hurricane wouldn't do significant damage. They would be back in a few days.

Nell was never to live in her beloved New Orleans again. First, the government locked the citizens out of the area for a month or more. When residents were allowed to return, they found that although water had only invaded the lowest floor of 19th-century homes, mildew from them being locked up destroyed almost all of entire houses, including Nell's and Albert's.

Rebuilding and returning were then realistic goals. Now refugees, they would be residents of the Crescent City again. Nell and Albert returned to Huntsville for another planned short visit. Unfortunately while in Huntsville, my friend became ill. After a battery of tests, she was diagnosed with lymphoma.

At that time, I was sick too; and housebound. I had contracted a staph infection in the bones of my ankle. Nell and her daughter came to my rescue and with a few other friends filled many lonely hours playing bridge.

If it hadn't been for just a few people, I think during that difficult time in my life, I would have just given up and blown away with the dust.

Unselfishly as Nell took treatments, she reached out me and others in the Huntsville community and made friends. I once told Nell that she was the peanut butter that held her "white bread" friends together.

Nell liked that; but she said if she were peanut butter, I had to be the jelly. From then on all e-mails were addressed: Hello Jelly Lady!

Nell's cancer went into remission and that was a "golden" time. We went to every concert in the park and danced in the grass. We packed picnics and ate by the Tennessee River. We saw movies. We started and attended Weight Watchers together.

"Nell, I'm back to my goal weight!" I want to shout to her.

At deep water exercises in the Natatorium, I remember the days rays of sunshine streamed in on our heads causing us to glow. It was glow-erous. As the weather changed and fall appeared, we swam in the deep water and looked back at the mountains and watched the brilliant leaves change colors.

About this time, the children had a meeting with Nell and Albert. The parents were urged not return to the Esplanade because of the high crime rates.

The choice for them then came down to either purchasing a house here in Huntsville or Little Rock, where two of their children live. Nell and Albert began the move to Little Rock, but she was immediately hospitalized and never got to enjoy her new home. Too soon she slipped into a coma and slipped away from us.

It was as if a comet flew through my life and then was gone. For the time she was here, she was illuminating, so smart, so funny, so talented.

When Nell was a civil rights lawyer in Little Rock, she once was meeting with a famous civil rights leader. He looked at her curly gray hair, and her dark skin and asked, "Nellyn, are you a 'sista'?"

Well, Nell, I loved you more than if you were my sister. You were a good friend. And I'm glad this new visitor to your beloved city, Gustav, apparently didn't bring the sorrow that Katrina did.

Kathy Albers of Huntsville is one of The Times' community columnists for 2009.

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