Collection

Do You Know What it Means

My wife telephoned our friend, the architect Web Deadman (31 Maryland Dr.) the afternoon of Katrina. He was fine. \"The roof leaks,\" he said, \"but it always leaks.\" Then we heard about the flooding of the city, and we wondered how Web was doing. For ten days we tried to contact him to no avail. Finally, our daughter in Seattle, Web\'s goddaughter, was able to find out through an association based in Kerala, India, what had happened to him. \r\n\r\nThis is the story: A person in the association has a brother who lives on Maryland Dr. and knew who had stayed through the storm. He gave our daughter Ray R.\'s Blackberry number. The afternoon of the flood Ray was out in his skiff, checking on neighbors and property, and saw Web out on the lawn next door to his home with his dog.(Maryland Dr. was flooded, but the homesites themselves were not.) They chatted. That evening Web\'s dog appeared at Ray\'s house, barking hysterically. Ray followed the dog home and found Web in the same spot as before, but lying face down. He turned Web over: he was unconscious but breathing. Ray tried to revive him unsuccessfully, but he died. He and another neighbor moved the body inside Web\'s house. Then began the wait for the removal of the body. In the meantime Ray covered the body & daily placed what he called \"holy salt\" on it. Finally, on Saturday I think it was, a truck of some sort appeared at the entrance to Maryland Dr., for the body. Ray put the body on the skiff & took it to the truck. But it needed to be in a body bag. Somehow Ray found a body bag, and Web\'s body was put into it. Then the refrigeration on the truck failed. Finally, it was fixed and the body was transferred to the morgue at St. Gabriel, La. \r\nThat was my daughter\'s account. I then contacted Christ Church Cathedral, Web\'s parish. In time Canon Ziegenfuss of the Cathedral drove to the morgue and retrieved Web\'s body. Web was buried in Lake Lawn Mausoleum. Web\'s two cousins from Wisconsin, colleagues and friends had a celebratory dinner in honor of him at Galatoire\'s in the Spring of \'06. Web\'s waiters joined us in commemorating his life. The dog is now safe and happy with Web\'s friend Gretchen.\r\n

Citation

“[Untitled],” Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, accessed December 7, 2024, https://hurricanearchive.org/items/show/31985.

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