each room ofher apartment (which is on the tenth Boor, overlook– ing the Garden District) and showed me what survived the storm and what was "new"-gifts from nephews and friends, maybe even a stranger. A table survived, one with wrought iron legs and a marble top, given to her when she taught there. How she got it back to the states, I don't know. Every other piece of furniture was made ofwood and disintegrated from sitting in eight feet ofwater for so many days. A few pictures survived that her husband (an amateur photographer) had taken-the streets ofGermany, Jackson Square in the rain, and a streetcar on St. Charles Avenue covered with snow. It was a long time ago-1962 maybe-that New Orleans actually experienced a white Christmas. It is easier for me to picture New Orleans covered with sev– eral feet ofwater than it is for me to picture the city covered in inches of snow. Hanging on the wall in Kathy's apartment are 12 plates from Boehm Porcelain studio-a well-known collection with different types of birds. The birds are nothing extraordinary to me, but Boehm was famous and talented, and I suppose that is what matters to Kathy. She and her husband bought the plates one at a time on their wed– ding anniversary, starting with the first. It was either right after the first one was bought, or right before the last-I can't remember-that the designer died and the plates significantly increased in value. The water spilled into New Orleans and filled Kathy's Lakeside home gradually, slowly enough to lift the plates off the walls and cushion them with mud. The water left as slowly as it came in and after the mold was washed off, the paint wasn't even scratched. The same can be said for Kathy's porcelain dolls-they came from Germany or France, somewhere far away, and they wore green dresses with red aprons and kerchiefs tied around their heads. Eight feet ofwater and only the most expensive items in her home survived. I wonder if it matters to her, if there was enough sentimental attachment to these items that were so outwardly valuable, or if she would trade them for her hand-made quilt or postcards or maybe a family Bible. Kathy went to church but her husband did not, though he photographed all of the weddings. 25
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