I Said Goodbye to My Sister Knowing I'd Never See Her Again. Then I Left.
In 2020, Hurricane Laura destroyed my home. I packed a van, said goodbye to my dying sister, and drove to Virginia. Within months, my daughter moved away. COVID put me flat on my back. I was 68, alone
What Hurricane Laura Destroyed (And What It Set Free)
In 2020, Hurricane Laura tore through my hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Officially a Category 4, though anyone who lived through it knows better.
It wasn’t rain that devastated the city. It was wind. Violent, unrelenting, tornado-like wind that ripped things out by the roots.
Including six enormous oak trees on my property.
If you’re from the South, you know the kind.
Ancient. Sprawling. Romantic. The kind that feel permanent. The kind you imagine will outlive you.
They didn’t.
They were thrown across my yard like toys, roots exposed, dignity gone. Two of them were tossed upon my car- bending it in half.
And something in me cracked open watching them lie there.
I’ve always believed trees are more than plants. They’re witnesses. Timekeepers. Guardians.
Seeing them uprooted felt personal. Intimate.
As if the storm had reached into my own life and said, pay attention.
At the time, I was already standing in uncertainty.
Alone. Caring for my elder sister. Wondering whether I had the strength or the desire to rebuild yet again.
And suddenly the question wasn’t just about the house.
It was about me.
Here’s what I’d been carrying:
My dream was never the traditional one.
I tried the marriages. Three of them. I raised my daughters. I did the expected things.
But the dream that lived quietly inside me was about freedom. Creativity. Curiosity.
Living in the center of things. Making art. Letting my soul lead instead of obligation.
I had been rebuilding other people’s versions of my life for decades.
Standing in front of those uprooted trees, the question became undeniable:
Do I stay and rebuild what’s been lost?
Or do I finally pull up my own roots?
I packed what I could fit in a small van and left.
With help from a few locals who hadn’t fled—thousands had—I loaded what mattered.
Paintings I’d saved. A few belongings. Some furniture.
And I said goodbye to my sister.
I knew, standing there, that I would likely never see her again.
I was right. She passed away two years later.
I drove to Virginia where my daughter lived.
No plan. No safety net.
Just the stubborn belief that I couldn’t rebuild someone else’s life one more time.
What followed wasn’t pretty.
Within months, COVID hit. I got sick. Three months in bed. Savings drained. Three months behind on rent facing eviction.
By this time, my daughter and her family had packed up and moved two hours away.
But even then, flat on my back, something was different.
The life I was trying to build—however unstable—was mine.
Not a reconstruction of what had been. Not a version that fit someone else’s expectations.
Mine.
So I kept going.
I started painting daily. Small works. Then larger. I put them online. I sold a few.
I started writing. Not because I had a platform. Because the words needed somewhere to go.
I began sitting with my soul. Two minutes at a time. Learning to listen instead of manage.
Slowly—so slowly it was almost invisible—things started organizing themselves.
Not through hustle. Not through a plan.
Through coherence.
Four years later, here’s what’s true.
I live simply, downtown, surrounded by light and my own paintings.
I write every day, and the work has found its people.
I sell my art. I support myself through what I create.
More than anything, I wake up inside a life that feels natural. Effortless. Aligned.
Whatever “normal” is supposed to mean, this is mine.
The joy I feel now is different from any joy I knew before.
It isn’t conditional. It isn’t borrowed. It isn’t built on anyone else’s approval.
It’s steady. Daily. Mine.
The kind that comes from knowing—finally, at 70—that you’re living the life your soul imagined long before you had language for it.
Hurricane Laura destroyed six ancient oak trees.
But it also destroyed the last excuse I had for not choosing myself.
And for that, I will always be grateful.
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Thank you for sharing your story. It really resonates for me. And it's validating choices now, at midlife, to center art-making -- finally -- in pursuit of living authentically (which weirdly ALSO benefits everyone I care for too)!
It took me 40 years to realize I was the only one in charge of my own happiness and not to live my life for others. Kudos to you for your strength and resilience.