"When I crossed the state line back into Louisiana after escaping the lashing of Hurricane Katrina, I said 'Oh, home sweet home.' And then I remembered that I had no home to go home to," a Bacoleña who lives in Louisiana said yesterday.

"My home of eight years that bore many irreplaceable mementos of my life, including my wedding album, was gone, destroyed when the dike just three blocks away, broke as Katrina rampaged through St. Bernard Parish in Chalmette, Louisiana," Marjorie Jolito Guidry, 46, told the DAILY STAR.

And as if things were not bad enough, before she could get back to Chalmette to see what had become of her home, she learned through a message sent by her family that her 78-year-old father, Cesar Jolito, had died in Bacolod City, delivering a another blow on an already devastated Marjorie.

"I feel numb and hurt, and ask myself why this is happening all at the same time," she said. "Hurricane Katrina destroyed our home, followed us to Houston with Hurricane Rita, and then my father died," said Marjorie, as tears welled in her eyes during an interview with the DAILY STAR.

Perhaps the death of her father, who was already ill, was hastened by news of what she had gone through and of losing her home, she said.

She said they did not realize how devastating Katrina would be, because, at first, the prediction was that it would hit Florida. It was only on Aug. 26 that they were told that it had changed course and was headed towards New Orleans, when people in the area began boarding up their homes and buying supplies, she said.

When Katrina threatened to hit Louisiana, Marjorie, who is a nurse, and her husband, Ralph Anthony, 47, a chemist working at an oil refinery, gathered up important papers and a few belongings and, together with their lovebird, Chirpy, drove away from their home at 5:30 in the morning of Aug. 27.

She said as they drove to safety they battled through hours of stalled traffic in exits out of Louisiana on their way to a friend's home in Houston, Texas. It was a long, hot, and debilitating journey with the car air-conditioning turned off because of the slow pace of traffic, she said.

They did not reach Houston on that day because, by the time they reached the home of Bacoleña Diana Locsin Verdeflor, and her husband, Hector, in Lafayette, Louisiana, Ralph, who had been driving, was near dehydration, she said.

Diana had been a classmate of Marjorie in Bacolod City.

The Verdeflors fed us and gave my husband Gatorade, and told us we could stay.

We were later joined by Shirley and Nelson Balbon also of Bacolod, Shirley's mother, Nenita Baltazar, son-in-law, Raymund Gabara, and friend Tony from Iloilo, who had also escaped from St. Bernard 's Parish.

While in the safety of the home of the Verdeflors, they learned that the eye of the storm was in St. Bernard and that they were lucky they were out of there when Katrina left it in shambles on Aug. 29. We were told a 25-feet surge of water hit our home, she said.

I knew in my heart that the home I loved was gone but it took me some time to admit it, Marjorie said. "Two days after Katrina, I cried and told my husband I want to go home, and he said, 'Margie face it, we don't have a home anymore'," she said.

On Aug 3, she said they moved to Texas.

Marjorie and Ralph went to stay in the home of her friend, Nonita Anacleto Balmaceda, who lives in Houston.

Marjorie and Nonita had been classmates at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital nursing school in Bacolod City and had worked at the hospital together.

In Houston, Marjorie said she and her husband registered to get financial assistance from the Red Cross, lined up for eight hours for food stamps and at Catholic charities for vouchers for clothing.

As news that Hurricane Rita was heading toward Texas reached them, Marjorie said she and her husband decided to head back to Louisiana on Sept. 21 and, during a stop she said she got an email from home that her father had died.

She said she had earlier phoned home to Bacolod that she was all right after Katrina hit, but that she had lost her home and everything that was in it.

Marjorie said she had been providing the financial needs of her father and he had, perhaps, been affected by the news of what happened to her.

On hearing the news about her father, Marjorie said her first thought was to return home to the Philippines but her passport had been left behind in their home at St. Bernard Parish.

Finally she flew to Providence, Rhode Island, to her brother, Marcelito, where she got a new passport and then they both flew home to the Philippines, arriving in Bacolod yesterday in time for their father's funeral.

She said her husband, Ralph, who went to see what was left of their home, said there was six feet of mud in it and the area smelled of dead animals.

We won't be returning to what is left of our home in St. Bernard, my husband says the things he found were not worth saving, Marjorie said.

We will be moving to another area in Louisiana not prone to flooding. My husband has returned to work at the refinery and I will have to start getting back to nursing work, too, she said.

Before Katrina, Marjorie and Ralph lived a comfortable life, now many new decisions will have to be made on how they will proceed.

When Marjorie returns to Ralph after the funeral of her father, it will be to a new life, starting over again and rebuilding from the devastation left by Katrina.*CPGomez

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