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Editor's note: Doug promises to e-mail the photo as soon as he can.
After two months of covering Katrina’s arrival and horrible aftermath, I’ve discovered that it’s the little things that unexpectedly touch me the most. This week, while videotaping a story in the hard hit area of Long Beach, Miss., I stumbled across one of those small keepsakes that left a lasting impression.
We had stopped at the Friendship Oak, a 500-year-old tree that survived the storm, when we made the discovery. It’s a slightly faded photograph of a young woman in a graduation gown, smiling from ear to ear, surrounded by what appears to be her parents beaming with pride. Judging from the clothing, it looks as though the picture was probably taken in the early 1970s... and judging from her enthusiastic smile it’s clear she was excited about what the future held for her. I found it nestled in a bush, just a few hundred feet from the Gulf of Mexico.
Nearby, the million dollar mansions that once lined this stretch of U.S. 90 are now gone. They were torn off their foundations and washed away by a 20-foot storm surge, yet somehow this photograph survived.
Just who this young smiling graduate is, and what became of her and her family is a mystery. I’d like to think she ventured off into the world, made her dreams come true and her parents proud. Who knows? Maybe she grew up to own one of the beautiful houses that lined this famous beachfront before Katrina hit. The only thing I’m sure of is that hurricane Katrina unexpectedly swept away this precious family photo forever. It’s the type of irreplaceable loss that thousands of Gulf Coast residents are coping with, and it’s a loss you can’t calculate.
Read more from After the Storm: The Long Road Back
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Back to the future
Thank you NBC and Brian Willaims for this touchinging touching and heartrending report. Hope
this helps us to search for leadership
that will help us avoid such in the future.
Peggye Enlow (Sent Aug 28, 2006 9:25:35 PM)
Here is the link to the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park Campus website page dedicated to the Friendship Oak's survival. The article was lovingly written by a woman who has worked on campus for almost 30 years ... the two photos on the page were taken by a gentleman from the Sun Hearld and are just stunning ... a picture really is worth a thousand words!
www.usm.edu/gc/katrina/friendship_oak
Cyrena, Vicksburg, Mississippi (Sent Nov 4, 2005 8:44:17 PM)
While I mourn for all that so many people have lost about their lives, I (as a photographer) have spent a lot of time thinking about the photographs that are gone. After family, pets & friends, they are the posession I value most---and I hate how so very many have been swept away. At least the victims have their memories of those events the photos depicted, but what a wonderful memory enhancing aid a photograph always is....and younger and future generations just won't have those visuals to go with their family histories. Thanks for writing about the one you found.
Lisa Purdon-Ball , Pontotoc, MS (Sent Nov 4, 2005 6:57:32 PM)
The Friendship Tree post with the graduation photo is a touching one. Thanks for bringing the story home so vividly. What has happened to the Gulf Coast branch of the U of Southern Mississippi that was where the Friendship Tree is? No one has reported on whether it still exists and what happened to the faculty and students made homeless by Katrina.
Marie Bristol-Power (Sent Nov 4, 2005 6:05:43 PM)
This flurry of blog posts in the last few days is proof that you guys are really getting it. They are personal, sometimes intensely so, and seldom sound like the voice of a PR department. Quintanilla's CD picks is a perfect example. Many other media outlets could learn from your example.
Keep up the good work.
John Sanders, Baltimore, Maryland (Sent Nov 4, 2005 4:24:43 PM)
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