Dan & Bonnie Cruz
Dan & Bonnie are great friends who live in Racine. Dan used to work for me when I had the consulting business in Racine. They are who we stay with when we go back to visit, so Cary & I were staying with them when Katrina hit. Cary will be staying with them if he goes back to Racine to work until we can return to the city.They got married in New Orleans on October 31, 2002. They love New Orleans almost as much as we do. The picture on the left was taken at our 25th wedding anniversary party in November of 2004.
Jim & Helen Eiseman (with Lou Lou and Lana)
Jim & Helen used to live in New Orleans. Helen and her son Clay owned the Mystic Cafe on Magazine. A couple of years ago they closed the Mystic and moved back to Louisville, where they opened Café Lou Lou in Louisville (Louisiana and Louisville, get it?). They opened their homes to us and are wonderful people.If you are ever in Louisville, please make a point of stopping in for lunch or dinner. They won best new restaurant in Louisville for 2004. You won't regret it - especially if you ever ate at Mystic and miss the great food they serve. You will get pretty much the same great stuff at Café Lou Lou's.
JoLynn Fee (with Buttons)
JoLyn is Janis' best friend from high school. She lives in Mascoutah, IL, which is about 30 minutes east of St. Louis. She has opened her house to us, and has been absolutely wonderful in making sure we are all comfortable. She is pictured here with her son's dog, Buttons, for whom she is caring. With at least seven people to play with, Buttons, a Husky/German Shephard mix, had no end of playmates. Yet another dog we spoiled in our travels..jpg)
Jan Franklin
This is Barry with his mom, Jan Franklin. She opened her home to Adam, Megan, and Jarret for almost a week. They have a great place, near Bagdad, Kentucky. I wish we could have spent a little more time there, but I probably would have killed myself or someone else. (See Update #28 for more details.)
Bernie Nagel
Bernie is Janis' oldest brother. (Her parents had 3 kids, then waited 10 years and decided to have another 3. Janis is the oldest of the younger three.) This is where we all were reunited after the storm. Bernie lost his voicebox to cancer many years ago, and last year, his wife Blanche, passed away. He has been very depressed since her passing.His step-daughter said he there was a remarkable change in his demeanor as soon as he learned we were coming to stay with him. We have seen this as well. Amidst all the bad stuff that has happened, this is truly one of the brighter spots. We plan to stay with him again when we return to this area towards the end of September.
Uncle Joe Nagel
This is Uncle Joe Nagel.He collapsed on the morning of Sunday, August 28, 2005 and stopped breathing - this was the same time as Janis was evacuating New Orleans. Although paramedics were able to get his heart beating again, his brain was without oxygen for too long. Janis arrived at his daughter Connie's house in Texas on Monday night. On Wednesday, she took Connie to the airport. On Thursday, they decided to shut off life support. Joe passed away at about 12:30 PM.
Cary and Chuck attended the funeral on Friday, and Janis joined us at Aunt Vivian's house later that afternoon. Our presence, and the fact that we were all safe, seemed to ease their grief.
Jamie Pflaster & Jeff Taylor
Jamie and Jeff made us feel right at home, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that all you need in life is a place to live and a place to drink and you will be OK. They adopted us as their own, and we adopted The Juicy Peanut as our home away from home.
Lee Robertson
Lee is a Los Angeles native, a Vietnam Vet, and sometimes French Quarter resident who lives most of the time on 160 acres of land in southwest Missouri, near Branson. Cary, Chuck, and Jarret took Barry there on Saturday September 24, 2005 and spent the night. Lee writes poetry and paints and collects and shoots firearms in his compound, which includes a Geodesic dome.
Kenzi Schubert
Kenzi has been on dialysis for over 5 years awaiting a kidney transplant. On two separate occasions he was called because he had reached the top of the list. On both occasions he was in New Orleans visiting us and could not get back to Milwaukee in time to get the transplant. (On the first occasion he was actually 2nd on the list, but they couldn't get hold of number one.) On Friday, August 19, 2005 his number came up again, and this time he was at home to answer the call.Kenzi had his transplant on Saturday, August 20, 2005. He was sent home on Wednesday August 24, 2005. Cary and I drove up after his shift ended at Coop's Place and surprised him at his home on Friday, August 26, 2005. He was doing so well that his roommate Max was able to drive him down to our friend Dan's house in Racine on Saturday August 21, 2005 for a cookout.
Kenzi is doing great. He faces a lifetime of taking anti-rejection drugs, but he is in good spirits and healing nicely.