Life's funny! Not funny ha-ha, or even funny peculiar. More like, funny marvelous. I've noticed that since the impending hope of publicity has arisen, I've been a bit distracted from the task at hand. Or shall we say, the HUGGING was seeming to feel more of a task. I was straying from the organic delivery of hugs and racing to be at specific locations so as not to miss a press opportunity. Each aspect, shooting, delivering, traveling it was all becoming spritzed with a slight sense of urgency.
(Urgency feeling a bit dramatic, but we'll go with that thought for lack of another word.)

Also, I've been getting about 5 hours of sleep a night, hugging by day
and arranging any and all aspects of SEND-A-HUG for it's maintenance and furtherance by night.

I felt like I was starting to lose sight of the mission,
to deliver HUGS where ever they are needed
...because a little hugs goes a long way!"

After getting out of the shower this morning, (I find that's where I do all my best thinking)
I realized I wanted to drive through some neighborhoods and deliver hugs to folks trying to clear out
their homes.

We (my pal, Shamus-local cameraman and I) came across a young guy working in one of the homes. I said, "Hey, let's pull over here and talk to this guy." "But he doesn't live here, he's just a builder," Shamus commented.
"That's okay, let's get his take on life after Katrina."
I approached the fellow, told him about SEND-A-HUG and asked him if I could interview him. "I don't much care for cameras," he replied.

No worries, I told him. And we started to chat. Turns out, the house is his. He bought it
30 DAYS BEFORE the Hurricane hit.


He's a fireman. Sunday was his assigned day to work, but he was supposed to be off on Monday. No one, however, got that Monday off. Everyone was told they had two hours to go to their homes grab some stuff and head back to work to help with the cities evacuation.

"I just went and grabbed a couple of shirts and pants. I didn't know my place was going to be flooded for 18 days, how could I?"

"Did the water go all the way up to your roof?" I asked him.
"Nope, just up to the top of the walls."
"JUST?!" No there's an amazing attitude for ya!

And he had the smile to match.
"What else can you do? You gotta go on."
And going on he is!

Up until 3 weeks ago he was staying in Baton Rouge in an apartment
he rented after the Hurricane, driving up to two hours, each way EVERY DAY
either to go to work or to gut his house.

He FINALLY got his FEMA trailer less than a month ago, and some insurance money...
that's a whole other story. He feels lucky that he's able to do all the work on his home himself.
All though a HUGE task, it's the only way he could afford to stay above board with all the costs
and the small amount of money being paid out by the insurance companies.



Between the insurance nightmare and the fact that families came back to homes that looked like this
it's a wonder folks stick around.
And yet, they can't afford not to.

And how bout this...
Brad, our hero, got a $300 electric bill for the month of September 2005.
He didn't end up having to pay, just part of the "humor" of the whole situation.

He gut the entire place and has most of the structure up and has done it all on his own.
Managing to do it all with that darn smile of his, of course no one can be up ALL the time
but I'll tell ya what, he's the true definition of HERO in my book.
Well, it goes without saying I HAD to give HIM a hug!
What a truly inspirational young man!


My next highlighted hero for the day...
Mr. Lionel Worthy. He calls himself Worthy
"The top name in the bible.," He told me as he introduced himself. Didn't necessarily no what that meant
but it did charm the heck outta me nonetheless.

Worthy and his dog duke had to be rescued from the attic of his home.
He was evacuated to Houston, Texas
and he can't take being away from his home although it's unsalvagable.
He feels like he can't move forward being away, nor is he at comfortable in Texas
especially now that his best friend, Duke ran away after arriving in the Lone Star state.
"He didn't like it none there either," Worthy said with a low hanging head.
Worthy's quite a character "a serious man" he calls himself,
with a sparkle in his eye that he can't hide.
He enjoyed receiving his traditional hug
but warned me not to hug him for too long (unable to hide his smile.)

His hug, Baby Goldilocks, was a most welcomed friend
that Worthy said he'd treasure as he treasured his much beloved
and extremely missed cohort, Duke.
His home is now wherever he parks his car.
Besides being utterly unliveabe, there's no electricity anywhere in the area
and Worthy said he'd never


As we left Worthy on the porch of his devastated home,
I looked back and saw him head to his car
where he sat, and contemplated what parking lot or driveway he'd be calling home that night.
It just about broke my heart!