I am not from New Orleans. But sometimes, I get honorary status because I have lived and worked here as a news reporter since 1999—and because I gave birth to our son, Hector, the day before Hurricane Katrina at Touro Infirmary, in New Orleans 20 years ago. 

Hector on his mom’s shoulders at the Prince of Wales second line, a few years after they returned from Katrina exile in Phoenix. (Photo by Pableaux Johnson)

Hector wasn’t due until Sept. 11, but he came early. I had my first labor pain at Matassa’s Market, the corner store on Dauphine Street on August 28, 2005. It was a scorchingly hot Saturday and I had stopped in to buy popsicles. Our friend L.J., who was at Matassa’s buying a pack of cigarettes, walked me home and waited with me until his dad, trumpeter “Kid Merv” Campbell, finished a brass-band gig that day.

This rest of this essay can be read here at The Lens’ partner, Time magazine.

Katy Reckdahl is The Lens’ managing editor. Reckdahl was a staff reporter for The Times-Picayune and the alt-weekly Gambit before spending a decade as a freelancer, writing frequently for the New Orleans...