With all the different lists and acronyms and phases of demolitions we spend a lot of time visiting, and revisiting houses.

In the work we have done we sometimes come in contact with people who need help. One of those people was Miss Dolores.

She was living alone in a FEMA trailer and had just gutted her house. She had a cell phone but didn’t know how to use it to call the City for debris removal so we called for her. Sarah made the call to 311 and they wouldn’t put in the request cause we didn’t live there. She then called the District Council person to make the request. It was almost comical but not really in the fierce Summer heat with flys buzzing around the fetid pile.

We spent some time with Dolores as she tried to wash and clean her dishes in a bucket outside,we went into her FEMA trailer and she had a stuffed Bear propped up on the bed watching her Daytime stories with her. She told us her husband of 50 years left her while they were evacuated.

Her house was so fragile and worn and it seemed like the City would most certainly tear it down. I wondered how they would deal with Dolores and her needs.

Today I went back by her house and this is what I saw.

The women across the Street told me she died on Christmas Eve and that they had made the shrine out front with her stuffed animals, the FEMA trailer was gone and soon so will the house.

R.I.P. Ms. Dolores