This thing that happened that might have meant something..

...or that might have meant nothing at all and was just kind of an interesting series of occurences.

See, my wife has this somewhat elderly aunt named Ginny who has lived in New Orleans her entire life. Many of those years were with a gentleman by the name of Ray who, from what I can gather, was something of a boyfriend or something along those lines. The two of them lived their lives, and got by pretty much on his veteran's benefits and her mad gambling skills. Apparently, the lady knows how to win.

Ray died a few months ago. I don't think it was a big surprise to anyone, but all the same, it left Ginny pretty much alone in New Orleans except for her ancient cat that she administered shots to every single day to keep it alive. She wasn't going to be able to make it on gambling alone, and since she and Ray never legalized their love, his benefits ceased their monthly voyage to their mailbox. Thus, the decision was made that she would come to Austin to live with my wife's folks. They'd pack up their truck and head east, just make a little vacation out of picking Ginny up and moving her back here.

The trip was planned for late last week, just prior to the weekend of August 26. You know, the weekend before New Orleans was destroyed? They had a nice week, at least. Now there are people shooting at relief workers.

The three of them ended up in the mass exodus out of the city, and drove for 24 hours straight in crazy Escape from Louisiana traffic all the way back to Austin. Ginny left behind the city that had been her home for her whole life. This not long after her life partner died. On top of that, her cat had to be put to sleep. I got nothing to compare to that.

But what I keep thinking about is the series of events that led up to Ginny's departure. Had Ray not died, had she not decided to go live with her sister, had the trip been planned for the next week, there's no doubt in my mind that Ginny would have ended up sleeping in the now defunct Superdome. And it's not like I'm the kind of person who sees la Virgen in the dirt on my unwashed car. And yeah I know, what about all the people who weren't so lucky to have an immediate way out. But it did happen, and it's one of those things where I just have to shrug my shoulders and say, "Yep. That happened and it's kinda weird. Yep."