Near my home, a river swelled up and out of its banks. I'm not sure about damage to homes, but there is a whole lot of water where there usually is none. For the most part, around where I live, some people were inconvenienced but not much more. The situation here is not good but not awful.
Driving to see my sister late this afternoon, I passed several people doing what Louisianians do best: taking an out-of-the-ordinary situation, a not good but not awful situation, and finding some way to use that situation as a way to have fun.
The sky was a rich blue and the sun colored things with a yellow tint. As I drove, I saw in the water spilled from the Amite River a pre-teen boy flopping around like a fish, laughing. A man drove a 4-wheeler along the edge of the overfilled canal and his dog splashed along behind him. There was an air of merriment and freedom.
Further down, a shirtless teenage boy in long, white shorts with bare feet rode a dirt bike up an incline away from the water as his friend, dressed the same, pulled the cord on his bike over and over in an effort to get it started. "Only in Louisiana," I thought, and laughed softly.
The story I want to tell you, though, happened earlier in the day.
The sermon this morning was about intentions; about examining your own and about considering the intentions of others and where they might be rooted. After that good sermon, I spoke to a few friends I hadn't seen in awhile and then went to visit my grandmother in her nursing home.
After the visit, I headed to my house. Between the nursing home and my home is an expansive concrete bridge that crosses the flooded Amite River. Approaching the river, I could see how far outside its banks it had grown. I decided I would pull over when I reached the other side of the bridge and take a few pictures of the treetops sticking out of the water.
I pulled off the road a safe distance and turned around to walk back toward the Amite. After a few steps, I was surprised to see a woman standing about 1/3 of the way up the steep bank of the river. In one hand, she held a wooden oar and leaned on it like a walking stick. I glanced at her awkwardly, looked away, and looked back. There she stood, as still as a lawn gnome. Very much a strange sight.
I took a few shots with my phone's camera then turned around, worked up my nerve and called out to her. "Are you alright?"
"My kayak flipped over," she answered, clearly shaken. "Is that a phone?"
"Yes ma'am, it is."
"Can I use it to call my husband?"
Instantly, I started walking downhill toward her. "You absolutely can," I said, trying to convey some sense of reassurance in my voice.
As I closed the gap between us, she told me again that her kayak had flipped then told me how it had happened:
"I was kayaking with my two sons. We live right off Stevendale. We started out paddling around in the back yard like we always do when it floods. Then somehow we ended up in the river. I figured, let's just go with it."
Apparently, at some point, she had suggested they get on the bank and just hang out for awhile. As she tried to angle her kayak toward the edge of the water, her boat got stuck sideways then tilted and began to fill with water. She ended up IN the water and was able to grab onto one of her sons' kayaks and be towed to he grass. Then her sons took off to find her boat and, hopefully, her bag and belongings.
"I'm just so glad I didn't have my little dog with me," she said several times.
(Me too!)
I offered her a ride home if she needed, but she said she needed to stay there and wait for her sons.
She called and left a voice mail for her husband to come get her.
After asking my name, she told me hers was Pam. Pam looked a little younger than my mom, a little bit short, a bit heavy, long hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a faded, black wife beater and blue jean shorts, and she was drenched, dripping wet. She looked exhausted, so I offered to help her the rest of the way up the steep bank to the roadway. Grateful, she accepted.
Up at the road, she thanked me. I told her that I'd stopped just to take pictures of the water, and was so glad I was able to help her.
She'd been so far down the hill, I would never have seen her if I'd just driven by.
"Somebody's looking out for you!" I told her. She thought about that and had to agree.
I'm so glad God picked me to help her out! You just never know what He has planned. :)
