Maria Jones from Biloxi, Mississippi, writes to her new friend in Tennessee after Louisiana Sandusky has responded to her letter.

Weds., October 5, 2005, nearly noontime here in Mississippi~

Dear Louisiana Sandusky in Tennessee~

Hello! This is your new friend in Mississippi, Maria Jones, writing. You will notice right away the different styling of lettering and the colored fonts; I am at the library near at the shelter where I am staying, and I am on the computer. I just learned how to do this, using the fonts and stuff, and I had to write to you to thank you for your letter of last week. It was so nice to hear from you, and I loved your telling me about your amazing family! Fifty three children?? My!! You either have a lot of love in your heart, or else you are crazy (take your pick)!! LOL We just got our power back in our area, but other parts of Biloxi will be out for yet another month or so, and it will take even longer than that to clean up the damage left over from Katrina. It looks as though a nuclear bomb went off, and I still cry whenever I look at all the destruction about me. I am lucky that nobody in my immedicate family was killed, but still, this stupid hurricane changed our way of life in ways we'd never dreamed, and it will be years before Biloxi, Mississippi (let alone, the entire Gulf Coast region of the United States) will be liveable or back to where it was prior to the hurricanes. I still have nightmares, and I guess I will for a very long time. But I am coping as best as I can; and it ain't easy at times, let me tell you!

I finally got to have a bath (a sponge bath, but a bath, no less), and I am wearing some clothes that were donated to the shelter, and it really feels good to be clean and in fresh clothes again! I also have been enjoying some hot meals, and it is better than eating cold mush or beans! I have been eating so many beans lately it's a wonder I have any friends left, for all the gas I have been passing! (TOO much information, I know, but that's how it has been! LOL) I could supply the gas companies with all the gas from all the beans I have been eating! LOL Then the prices would go down, and people'd have plenty of juice for their cars! LOL

Your daughter, Janica, is so cute; she looks like a very nice little girl. She is lucky to have a family that loves her, and she is lucky to have you as a mama. I bet you are a wonderful mama to your kids! I know I enjoy my two boys, Corey and Treville (they are eight and six), and my husband, Orville, but they are still in Texas, and they will be joining up with me here as soon as they fix up a place for me to stay. Anything is better than the shelter; I am so sick of being in a shelter I can just spit!! LOL

How is the weather there in Nashvlle, Tennessee? I hope it is cooling off; here it is still hot, and I am more than ready for a serious cooldown! But I am worried now: there is another hurricane in the Gulf, somewhere near Florida, and I hope that it doesn't come thisaway! We don't NEED any more hurricanes here!! We've had more than enough now this year!! YIKES! Have the leaves started to changing there? I hope so, I bet Nashville is beautiful in the fall! You will have to send me some pictures of a Nashville fall, I bet the leaves are nothing short of spectacular!!

Well, I know this isn't much of a letter, but we only have an hour's limit on the computer if it's busy (and it is; there is a line of people wanting to use the computer), so I will have to go now. I will write to you again another time. Thanks for telling me about yourself and your family; I love learning about new people in new places! God bless you, Miss Louisiana, and do write to me again!

Love, your new friend in Mississippi, Maria Jones (Hurricane Katrina refugee). :) (Trying to smile through the fear, tears, and uncertainties!)