Joy in the Shower

I met Betty more than 60 years ago, when we were both students at Texas State College for Women. Except for those four years in Denton, Texas, Betty has lived for all of her 80 years in Galveston.

She remembers her terror during Hurricane Carla (1950? or 1952?) when she listened to the howling wind and rain on the roof of her home near the seawall. She vowed never to go through another hurricane alone.

For the past year she lived in a retirement facility just five blocks from that old home on Seawall Blvd. Before Hurricane Ike, all the residents were evacuated to College Station, Texas. Betty packed a few things, expecting to be gone for three or four days. She was away for over a month.

In talking to me, Betty praised the kindness and generosity of the Methodist Church which provided shelter and three meals a day to all the old folks from her retirement community. Yet at times it was difficult, sharing a room with 11 other women and one bath for 30 people.

She came home this week. Riding in on the bus, she could not believe her eyes. The destruction was worse than anything pictured on television. All the shops were destroyed. She said, "I don't believe my town will ever be rebuilt."

Her building withheld the torrent. The apartments facing the Gulf had overlooked restaurants and shops along the seawall. Now there was nothing obstructing the view of the sea.

Her third floor apartment, on the other side of the building, was undamaged. Only her refrigerator, full of food which rotted for a month, had to be hauled away and dumped.

She told me she was delighted to be living in privacy with an ice chest, electricity, and hot water. "I have lights and television and, best of all, hot water."

She said it was the first time she had a real bath since before the hurricane.

"Now I know what a thrill it is to stand in the shower and shampoo my hair!"