The greater New Orleans area and Metairie where we lived, like other big cities had its share of crime. We hadn’t experienced any problems where we lived, and since it was an upscale neighborhood where houses were close together, we felt safe and had little concern that something might go wrong.

After we enclosed the carport to make a room for Carol, it meant the parking had to be in our driveway. Even that didn’t take care of our needs, since we had a van and car and only a single car driveway. We were fortunate that on the left side of our house was a vacant lot. The city insisted on it being kept mowed, so periodically someone would come out and cut the grass. We never knew who owned the lot, but no one ever questioned the fact we were pulling our van up near the house on the edge of the lot.

Evan drove the van to work every day, and I used the car. One morning, Evan got in the van to go to work, and it didn’t start. When looking beneath the van, he discovered that everything that could be removed from beneath a vehicle had been. We learned rather quickly a team of thieves were operating in our area. They would jack up a vehicle in the night and take what parts could be removed while the family slept inside. Being the victim of such a crime left us feeling violated and vulnerable.

I can recall only one other incident where we were targeted. The other happened before we moved from the apartments. Christi’s new bike which was chained to a post below the apartment was stolen during the night. This was likely a teen-age thief. The bike was chained improperly through the spokes making it easy to cut the spokes and remove it.

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In June of 1979, Connie had her sixth birthday. I decided to give her a small party, but there were only a few kids I knew of to invite. Connie gave out the invitations to those around us. There were two girls across the street, a boy and girl next door and Diane’s daughter, Lesley, and Jennifer who lived next to Diane. I had the house decorated with balloons and party favors and a big cake. Christi had agreed to supervise the games. At the two o’clock hour, Diane showed up with Lesley. Diane and I sat and talked as we waited for the other children to arrive. By nearly three o’clock, no one else had arrived. I was embarrassed and felt terrible for Connie, who had been excited about her party.

Diane excused herself saying she needed to run home for a minute, but she would return. It wasn’t long until she was back bringing with her five more children I’d never seen before. Diane was a Brownie Scout leader, and she’d managed to round up children quickly so that Connie wouldn’t be disappointed. It reminded me of a parable in the Bible where a king gave a wedding feast. When the invited guests didn’t come because they had other plans, the king sent his servants out on the streets to round up everyone they could find and bring them to the feast instead.

It was nearly four p.m. when the children who’d been invited came as well. It seems they had been previously invited to other parties and were only able to come after the other parties ended. Connie had a good party after all. I realized Diane was a true friend, who cared about others and wanted to make sure my child wasn’t disappointed.

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When school started back up in September, Christi wanted to go away to boarding school with her twin. This time, Evan and I, as well as the other parents, decided north Arkansas was too far away. We all opted to send our children to a place only two hours away in Mississippi near Hattiesburg.  After getting them settled in the school for their senior year, it was time to get Carol to her college near Fort Worth, Texas. Evan and I drove her there in the van with the intention of leaving it so that Carol would be able to use it to get back home. Connie went along with us. We had airline tickets so the three of us could fly back home from the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

It was storming as the time came to fly out. The airport had overbooked, and there weren’t enough seats. There was an announcement offering free flights to those who were willing to wait for a later flight. Neither Evan nor I wanted to get on that plane in the middle of a storm. We discussed waiting and were about to volunteer, when the announcement was made that enough people had agreed to delay their flights, and they didn’t need any more.

We had no choice but to fly. I had only flown in a big plane once before. Evan and I were nervous. It was Connie’s first flight, and she sensed our anxiety and became upset about flying as well. On the flight home, the turbulence was extremely bad. We had to keep the seatbelts fastened the entire flight. The pilot kept moving to different levels hoping to make the flight smoother, but nothing seemed to improve. We were sitting over the wing and looking out reminded me of bird in flight flapping its wings.

Only a few years before an Eastern Airline had crashed in a storm in New Orleans killing 113 people. It was due to a wind shear problem. It was the second time an Eastern Airline flight had crashed in New Orleans. Thankfully the Delta flight from Dallas to New Orleans didn’t last much longer than two hours, but I’ve never been so happy to finally be on solid ground again.

Now that we were home again with only one child left, our house felt very empty. Connie was starting first grade on Monday. She was missing her siblings and was getting to experience what it was like to be an only child. It was easy to see why she wanted to stay at Diane’s house whenever she wasn’t in school.