Ellen Montgomery...

It's nearly 3 in the morning and I can't sleep. Got to remember to buy Tylenol PM!!!! So, I read. I was just rambling on to David (who was by this time comatose beside me in bed) about how this book was like this last week has been, rainy. It's just a plain gray rainy book. Or, it was until I turned a page to lead me from the author's pity party (yes, I know, but the guy was living in a section of New Orleans that wasn't hard-hit by Katrina...and it's three in the morning and I have no sense of mercy or even plain Southern good manners and civility within) to what I bought the book for - to read and learn what it must have been like for the victims of Katrina.

I turned to a chapter entitled The Cat Lady. Ellen Montgomery is an artist and quite the character so I jumped out of bed to do a quick "google" to see her work. That's when I read this:

"She was a gentle, 85-year-old soul who wrote poetry and painted landscapes and helped her Uptown neighbors and loved her cats like a mother loves her children. The men who murdered Ellen Montgomery didn't know that." Sunday, Dec 03, 2006 Chris Rose

Egad. I'm sorry, Chris (Rose) for judging too quickly. I'm sorry that my good Southern parent's teachings on how to be kind and mannerly slipped away from me. I apologize for even trying to imagine how hard all this must have been, and maybe still is during the dark hours of the night...or day. I guess if you have memories like yours, even the day can have its dark hours.

Rest in peace, Ellen Montgomery.