One of the hardest hit locations from Hurricane Katrina was Pass Christian. A wall of water – literally 30 feet high — swept everything away.
We were assigned to work one day at the property of Miss Genie in Pass Christian. The fews days before that had involved us painting, sheet rocking, and some small demolition projects. That day was much different. As we pulled up in the van, we saw NOTHING. No house. No foundation for a house. Nothing at all. Something about this location was going to be different.
Miss Genie met us there and showed us around her property. “This is where I used to park my car, this is where my bedroom was…” All that remained was a few patches of grass and lots of debris.
During the tour, Miss Genie told a story about the night before the hurricane hit. Genie was a huge collector of pennies. She had pennies that were older than her, some from the 1920′s. They were a point of pride for her and she was able to share that with her grandkids. The night before Katrina destroyed her house, she was sitting in the kitched with one of her granddaughters counting the pennies and telling stories about each one. “1944 – this penny survived WWII…” They went through hundreds of pennies that night. Early the next morning, they evacuated and only took what was necessary.
Katrina came and left – leaving nothing behind.
Miss Genie gave us the task of finding some of those pennies that meant so much to her. At first, I was thinking to myself that I’m not wasting my time looking for something that clearly could be ANYWHERE. Then something hit me. It wasn’t for me… it was for Miss Genie. She lost everything, so the least I could do was suck it up and search.
She gave us ideas about where the pennies could be (“…my bedroom was over here and I kept them under the bed”). I settled for the area around a cement pad (formerly the kitchen).
I dug through the dirt a little bit and within five minutes I found fifteen pennies. I didn’t want her to get too excited so I just set them aside. Few minutes later I found more. This time fifty pennies. And then three rolls of pennies. After an hour, I had found over 2,000 pennies. By lunch time, I had amassed over 5,000 pennies. I guess it was finally time to let her know of my find. I walked over to where she had been sitting and asked her to walk with me. As we approached, she saw the pile that I made. A huge smile crossed her faced.
I realized something at that time. It wasn’t the pennies she was looking for. She was looking for the good times. She was looking for memories. To her, those pennies represented a life that was easier. I spent a couple hours finding what amounted to $50 worth of change, but it was time well spent.
It was a small miracle that I was even able to find those pennies – think needle in a haystack.
The value of a penny isn’t always what is established by the Treasury department. To me, these were pennies that were sent from Heaven. Because of Miss Genie and Joel, I will never look at a penny the same way.
