08/30/2026
Sometimes the most meaningful moments happen when we least expect them.
Before I closed the storefront of The Chiffarobe, a beautiful woman stopped in on her way to Coffee Rani. A dress had caught her eye, and as we talked, another dress came up—one in the colors of the school where she works. That’s when I learned she was the Provost of Nunez Community College.
And then I realized who she was.
At the 20-year commemoration of Hurricane Katrina, she was the person who stood before everyone and read aloud the names of those who perished. She was the person who said my father’s name.
What she couldn’t have known was how much hearing his name spoken aloud that day had meant to me. There was something about it that brought me a sense of peace I hadn’t expected.
But before I could tell her any of that, she shared something with me. She told me how incredibly difficult and uncomfortable it had been for her to read those names. So I told her, "You gave me peace." Her response was emotional. She thanked me and told me that hearing that was healing for her, too.
Twenty years later, Katrina still lives differently in each of us. No matter where you stand on the many issues surrounding that storm and its aftermath, you have a story. Some endured unimaginable losses. Others lost things that may seem smaller by comparison, but that changed them nonetheless. And sometimes, without ever knowing it, we become part of someone else’s healing.
To the people who step forward and do the uncomfortable things—the painful things, the things that require courage—so that someone else might find a little peace:
Thank you.
You may never know what your willingness gave to another person. But sometimes, if you’re very lucky, years later, she just might walk into your little shop on her way to get coffee and tell you.
That gift is immeasurable. ❤️
