|
Homeowner Bio
Evelyn Solis has always been a giver. As an employee of Wal-Mart for almost 19 years before the storm, she was often the captain of the community giving team’s efforts to raise money for a variety of causes, like Relay for Life and multiple sclerosis. But when Hurricane Katrina washed away everything she owned, she was on the receiving end for the first time in her life.
“I’m now in a position to see how the people [I helped] feel,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “It puts a new perspective on when people say they appreciate you. They really do.”
For the first time in a long while, Evelyn’s life in Chalmette is looking up. The house that she lived in since 1986 is being rebuilt. She has a steady job at a nearby funeral home. Her daughter Nicole, 29, is pregnant with her first child. Her son Nicholas, 25, landed a job as a contractor installing countertops. Once her house gets rebuilt, they will all be together again under the same roof.
Hurricane Katrina has prevented this family from being united, until now. When the levees breached, the floodwaters rose quickly and covered Evelyn’s roof. With her elderly mother in tow, Evelyn looked for a life-saving solution that could take them to safety and found one in the hope chest she got before marrying her husband. Together, they floated on the chest to a neighbor’s house and then to a nearby gym on higher ground. Over the next several days, Evelyn and her then 72-year-old mother Elsie were shuffled everywhere – from a ferry to Algiers, to the airport and finally to a shelter in Kingwood, Texas they stayed for several weeks until it closed.
Evelyn and Elsie traveled throughout the South to the houses of friends and the few relatives they could contact. Evelyn didn’t see her son until they moved back to New Orleans in late February 2006.
For two years, Evelyn and her mother, an employee at Guy’s Po-Boy Shop for 40 years, lived in a FEMA trailer in front of their ravaged home. They are now living in an apartment until the St. Bernard Project and its volunteers finishes their house.
Though Katrina created a great deal of sad and painful memories for the Solis family, Evelyn believes that going home will give them a fresh start and remind them of the happy memories spent in their home. Elsie, Evelyn and her children have lived in New Orleans and St. Bernard their whole lives, and they “just can’t get comfortable anywhere else,” Evelyn said.
“The house will not be exactly the same, but the memories are still there,” she said. “My kids grew up there, we know the neighbors, we used to do things together. We are starting a new beginning. We may not have the material things anymore, but we have the memories.”
|
|
Under Construction
Some of our homes currently under Construction
Barbara Williams, New Orleans, LA
Brenda Dupre-Williams, Lower 9th
Chana King, Violet, LA
Clarence and Diane Victorian, New Orleans East, LA
Cologero Caillouet, Chalmette, LA
Darren Anderson, Violet, LA
Darryn Carreras, Chalmette, LA
Darrell Betha, Mereaux, LA
David Lagrange, Arabi, LA
David Melerine, St Bernard, LA
Deborah Vita, Violet, LA
Debra Brown, Gentilly, LA
Delia Doty, Chalmette, LA
Donald & Tonya Topey, Violet, LA
Donnell Barthelemy, Violet, LA
Donnie Panarello, Chalmette, LA
Evelyn Solis, Chalmette, LA
Gerry Bierria, New Orleans, LA
Glenda Ceaser, Violet, LA
Jennifer Lanier, Violet, LA
Joycelyn and Lawrence Stokes, St. Bernard, LA
Joyce Guient, New Orleans, LA
Juan Toledo, Arabi, LA
Keith Florane, Chalmette, LA
Kenneth Burrell, Arabi, LA
Kenneth Dorsey, Lower 9th
Kwame & Dominique Adansi-Bona, Gentilly, LA
Mathilda & August Miller, Chalmette, LA
Mona Lisa Payne, New Orleans, LA
Ralph Dipadova, Chalmette, LA
Rebecca Holmes, St. Bernard, LA
Regina Beal, Violet, LA
Rhonda Krantz, St. Bernard, LA
Ricky Diecidue, Meraux, LA
Robert & Amy Barlow, Meraux, LA
Roosevelt Houston, Lower 9th
Sabrina Pacaccio, Violet, LA
Shane & Tina Meshell, Meraux, LA
Sharen Williams, Arabi, LA
Theresa McLuckey, Chalmette, LA
Vanessa Havers, St. Bernard, LA
Velma Lewis, New Orleans, LA
Willie Major, Violet, LA
|
