HAPPY MARDI GRAS PHOTO ESSAY

Today is Mardi Gras. Really! Mardi Gras was not last Tuesday, as in my erroneous post, which I quickly removed, but which stays in Google Reader probably forever. Tomorrow is really, really Ash Wednesday, and you will all need to get really, really serious about repentance of your wicked ways. But for one last day, you may revel in your naughtiness.

The pictures are from the Cleophas parade this past Sunday.



"Who Dat?" of course! - in honor of the New Orleans Saints football team. The National Football League has copyrighted the phrase, "Who Dat?" - as though they could.



Who dat wit' de umbrella? Dat's the rector's wife, dat's who. An' dat's her perch on de telephone box, an' nobody dare to steal her perch.



"We So Broke It's Whatever", to which a good many folks in the country can relate.



Over the hill and deep into the valley on the other side for me.



Thomas the Train, a really cute float. The picture doesn't do it justice.



Grandpère and the middle generation, my son and daughter-in-law.



The elder generation, who stay at home on Mardi Gras, but not on the Sunday before. It's raining here today. I hope it's not raining in New Orleans and in the other cities which have parades.

An' dat's dat, as dey say.

LINDA SAYS GOOD-BYE TO LOUISIANA

From the Daily Comet:

She had been afraid and anxious, but 64-year-old Linda Lahme sat calmly in her wheelchair Monday morning at Maison De’Ville nursing home, wrapped in a blanket and wearing a wool hat against the early-morning chill.
....

She was still sick, unable to stand for any length of time and aching. But sick or not, she was going home, back to the foundation she helped start in Luapula Province, Zambia, the southern-African nation where she spent the past 10 years working to educate and feed children orphaned by famine, AIDS and other diseases.

“I’m going back because I can’t get any medical care here,” she said Friday. She has had no source of income since being diagnosed with colon cancer last year and was forced to resign her position as the director of the Luapula Foundation to seek treatment, first in South Africa and then in Louisiana.

However, Lahme, a retired nurse who spent most of her adult life in Thibodaux, couldn’t endure another round of chemotherapy. Instead she settled into the nursing home and the care of hospice workers.

In December, she said she hoped to live long enough for her 20-year-old adopted Zambian daughter, Winnie Kunda, now studying medicine in Russia, to arrange for a visa that would allow a visit to her bedside.

But last week, she said she had run out of options. Medicaid had found out about a bank account she set up in Africa to pay for Kunda’s education and said the asset made her ineligible for the program, Lahme said. Lahme refused to tap into the account, opting to return to Zambia and limited medical care rather than compromise Kunda’s future.

“To qualify for Medicaid, I would have to spend all the money I set aside for my daughter’s education,” Lahme said.
....

Though she was so sick she listened while lying in a pew, Lahme attended Sunday services at St. John Episcopal Church in Thibodaux, which has helped raise money and purchase goats for the impoverished people served by the foundation.

“This was really a prayer of thanksgiving for her life in Africa and her life among us,” said Rector Ed Robertson, who visited Lahme frequently at the nursing home. Robertson said Lahme’s experience fits the definition of a “holy death,” a concept that means her terminal illness has brought others closer to God.
....

It is the rainy season now in Luapula, Lahme said Monday morning as she gazed out the glass door waiting for her ride. There will be mud everywhere.

“I was afraid last night and this morning I wasn’t,” she said.

As soon as I have more news of Linda, I will let you all know.

Prayer for Linda:

May God the Father bless you, God the Son heal you, God the Holy Spirit give you strength. May God the holy and undivided Trinity guard your body, save your soul, and bring you safely to his heavenly country; where he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

The website for the Luapula Foundation is under construction. Donations may be sent to:

Luapula Foundation
c/o St. John's Espiscopal Church
718 Jackson St.
Thibodaux, LA 70301

My earlier posts on Linda are here and here.