Oprah’s Angel Network

After losing everything to Hurricane Katrina, Deirdre and her daughter Destiny have made a life for themselves in Jackson, Mississippi.

When Deirdre heard the news that Hurricane Katrina was going to hit New Orleans, she packed up her car with 5 days worth of clothes for her and her daughter Destiny, her ID and, by chance, a copy of her teaching certificate. As she drove from her home in New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi to stay with friends, Deirdre thought she and Destiny would be back in their home in just a few days—but that never happened.

Deirdre and Destiny ended up losing everything to the storm. All the things they left behind in their home in New Orleans were destroyed. Deirdre knew, though, that she couldn’t let her circumstances keep her down. Deirdre’s father was in the military and when she was young, she and her family moved often. Deirdre says that experience made her learn how to pull herself up, how to adapt and how to be self-reliant.

Just 2 and a half weeks after the storm, Deirdre got an apartment in Jackson and a teaching job at a local high school. Since then, Deirdre and her daughter have been actively building their life in Jackson.

New Home, New Opportunities

After 4 months in their apartment, Deirdre applied to Habitat for Humanity® for a home in Jackson. She was accepted, and in July 2006, she and Destiny moved into one of the Jackson Habitat homes funded by the Angel Network. Deirdre says she’s so thankful for the opportunity to own her own home and also that “The responsibility is empowering.” She says she’s doing things now that she never thought she would—like gardening and making repairs around the house, even fixing broken pipes.

On top of becoming a new homeowner, Deirdre has also headed back to school since moving to Jackson, to get her PhD in Education. Deirdre says she toyed with the idea of going back to school when she lived in New Orleans, but there was always some reason to put it off. Now that she has her new home, a good teaching job and her daughter is doing well in school, “I thought ‘There’s no excuse now’,” Deirdre says.

Making It Work

Even though all of Deirdre’s family still lives in New Orleans, she says she’s making the distance work, and she and Destiny make weekend visits when they can. She notes, “I can live with the situation. We make it work.”

“I’ve started a life in Jackson, and have made wonderful friends here,” she says. And for all the other people who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina, Deirdre says ,”I want to be that vessel to show that we can live past this. It can be done, we can have a life.”