Tag: Plaquemines Parish
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Not An Anniversary To Look Forward To
How are you feeling right now? Sad. Nostalgic. Brokenhearted. That’s how I feel right now. Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall near my hometown of Port Sulphur, Louisiana. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina lifted my parents’ home off of its foundation and deposited it, broken in half, across the back…
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My Two Special Saints
On an unseasonably warm March day this year, I attended the 5:00 Vigil Mass at my parish, which was also Confirmation with Bishop Evelio Menjivar of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. The large church was packed, with folding chairs lining the entire interior perimeter of the church and chairs outside the doors of the…
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Book Review: The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
While considerable thought goes into packing clothing for an overseas vacation, especially when visiting multiple countries with differing climates, I give equally as much thought into what I will read on the trip. My Kindle is always fully loaded and downloaded and ready to go. For my recent trip to Ireland and France, I had…
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You Say Tomato, I Say Creole
When my mother deemed me old enough to cross Highway 23 South alone, she would give me a $5 bill and tell me to walk to Mrs. Benandi’s house and buy a box of Creole tomatoes. I would walk there, buy the box of tomatoes, and start my walk back home. The tomatoes on the…
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A Sea of Silver
It’s a thin bangle of sterling silver bearing a sliding charm, simple and low-profile like much of my jewelry. Etched into the silver charm shaped as a heraldic shield is a mighty ship, sails billowing in the wind. The bracelet, made by a popular and trendy company, is called Steady Vessel: Journey/Fortune/Change. The card that accompanied…
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À bientôt
On Thursday, May 14, 2015, I said my final goodbye to my dad or at least my final goodbye in this life. Being a faithful Catholic, however, I truly believe that I will see him again in eternal life, so perhaps Thursday’s goodbye was merely à bientôt. His funeral was beautiful. My brothers and I…
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Just Around the River Bend
In June of 1995 my older daughter turned five years old and just after her birthday a new Disney movie was released, Pocahontas. She was crazy about that movie. She had Pocahontas pajamas, t-shirts, bathing suit, bed sheets, and that Halloween she was Pocahontas head to toe. Just recently when going through some boxes of…
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A Narrow Sliver of Land
We all have our Proust moments: the singular bite of something that we loved and cherished in our childhood, re-tasted later as an adult, transporting us back in time to a particularly fond memory. Truman Capote, in his semi-autobiographical short story “A Christmas Memory”, describes in great detail the food of his childhood in the…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 