ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>The Color Purple  Meet the Families  Producers</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8" /> <!--[if IE 6]><link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style_ie6.css" type="text/css" /><![endif]--> <!--[if IE 7]><link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style_ie7.css" type="text/css" /><![endif]--> </head> <body id="families"> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="header2"> <div id="title_city"> <img src="images/title_producer.gif" alt="MEET THE FAMILIES WHOSE HOMES ARE BEING REBUILT WITH DONATIONS RECEIVED FROM THE PRODUCING TEAM, ALICE WALKER AND CREATIVE TEAM OF THE COLOR PURPLE." /></div> <div id="cont"> <div class="title_story"> <img src="images/title_lynette.gif" alt="Lynette" /></div> <div class="divider_top"></div> <p><img class="famPic" src="images/pic_lynette.jpg" alt="Picture of Lynette" />One year before Hurricane Katrina struck, Lynette and her three children suffered the loss of their beloved husband and father, Steven, who died from bone marrow cancer at the age of 46. Although still grieving a year after his death, the family had slowly begun to move forward with their lives. Lynette, Steven Jr., Demetrice and Lynetrice were grateful that they were still together as a family, living in their own home in Violet. Lynette had just started work in the housekeeping department at a local hospital. Her oldest daughter was attending a community college; the other two children were finishing high school. <br /><br />Lynette had grown up in Plaquemines, an area at the mouth of the river, happily surrounded by three sisters and three brothers. She says it was a close community&mdash;a wonderful, safe and friendly place for families with children. <br /><br />Lynette was at work Saturday night before the hurricane. She had planned to evacuate from Louisiana the next morning with her kids, but the hospital director told her not to leave. Instead, she was to go home and return to work the next day, bringing her family with her. Lynette didn&rsquo;t know what to do. She had just started this much-needed job and didn&rsquo;t want to lose it. The rest of her large family had already evacuated to Houston, expecting her and the kids to join them there. <br /><br />On Sunday night, Lynette, her children and the other staff at the hospital who had returned to work watched in horror as the first floor of the building filled with water. <br /><br />&ldquo;People were running from place to place trying to find a dry spot to stand on,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The water was rushing in. It looked like it was boiling, but it wasn&rsquo;t. It was ice cold.&rdquo; <br /><br />There was little food, and the electricity went out. She saw sights she never could have believed&mdash;patients dying, people stuck in corners, people arguing over food. By the third day everyone was exhausted, and children were getting sick. Those who still had the strength broke windows out and climbed onto the roof. Lynette&rsquo;s son Steven joined the rescue effort, dropping down from the roof to one of the boats floating by. He brought as many people who were clinging to rooftops to safety as he could. It wasn&rsquo;t until five days later that a helicopter landed on the hospital roof and brought the exhausted and sick survivors to the airport. <br /><br />&ldquo;God is wonderful,&rdquo; Lynette said. Her friends who were safe in Houston had thought Lynette and her children were dead. In Houston, when they finally were able to make contact, Lynette was overjoyed to hear her mother&rsquo;s and her aunts&rsquo; voices. &ldquo;Everyone was strong. Everyone survived.&rdquo; When the family reunited in a motel room in Houston, Lynette felt like she had woken up from a nightmare. <br /><br />&ldquo;The people in Houston were so wonderful,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;They did what they didn&rsquo;t have to do.&rdquo; These kind people in Houston and the surrounding areas did what they could for the suddenly-homeless American refugees. A church provided a big dorm fitted with air mattresses. There was a good-sized kitchen filled with food. They were given new clothes and shoes. <br /><br />&ldquo;I had lost my car and my van and my house,&rdquo; Lynette said. &ldquo;I had $97.00 to my name but I felt blessed to be alive after all I saw and blessed by the people who helped us. I didn&rsquo;t want to take help, but a woman named Pam brought me a cell phone. She said these people want to help you. A man whose wife had just died gave me her van and said he needed to do that because I had lost my husband, and we&rsquo;d been through the same thing. It was amazing. They brought everything&mdash;anonymously. It was just so wonderful. They were just truly blessing me. It wasn&rsquo;t real and I kept thinking, &lsquo;But what can I do?&rsquo;&rdquo; <br /><br />Lynette and her family were in Texas for nine months. When they returned to Louisiana they lived in a damp FEMA trailer for two months. <br /><br />&ldquo;I&rsquo;m living wherever I can right now,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m staying with my daughter and her two kids. My other children are staying with other people. They&rsquo;re doing the best they can. I&rsquo;m living on my husband&rsquo;s retirement money. My house was totally messed up. I could only save one mirror.&rdquo; It was a mirror her husband had bought for her before he died. <br /><br />Lynette says she&rsquo;s never been this destitute. She had always found ways to make money&mdash;braiding hair, making curtains&mdash;contributing as she could to the household money. &ldquo;It was tough to get back into life after my husband died,&rdquo; Lynette said. &ldquo;When I got that job [at the hospital] I felt I was getting a better hold on things. Things were working out.&rdquo; Now Lynette has a new job and is doing the best she can on her own, but she does need help. <br /><br />&ldquo;The St. Bernard Project is right around the corner from where I grew up. I knew they helped people with rebuilding their houses so I went there. I want to be back together with my kids in my own home. I want to pick up the threads of my life and go on, but I need help.&rdquo;</p> <div class="clear">&nbsp;</div> <div id="btn_donate"> <a href="http://www.stbernardproject.org/v158/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=221&Itemid=38"><img src="images/btn_donate.gif" alt="Donate" /></a> </div> <div id="footer"> <a href="http://colorpurple.com"><img src="images/footer_url.gif" alt="Visit The Color Purple's official website" /></a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </body> </html>