The Birthday Rose tells the story of one of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, one of the overcomers.
The Birthday Rose: What Katrina Could Not Destroy, by Gwen “Miss Chocolate” Williams. Privately published in 2007 and reprinted in 2008 by Gwen Williams, Picayune, Miss. Available via email:chocolatelavern@aol.com
The Birthday Rose tells the story of one of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, one of the overcomers. It’s as powerful a retelling of the Katrina story as you’re likely to read anywhere, because it’s written by and about an insider – a longtime New Orleans resident: Gwen “Miss Chocolate” Williams.
Williams starts her story in the years before the storm, ministering to children and seniors – and trying with little success to get members of her church involved in mission projects.
Then came Katrina, and Miss Chocolate helps us understand the misery of New Orleanians in the first days, weeks and months after the storm. One probably unintended consequence of The Birthday Rose is that it will be a good book for volunteers to read when the next communal disaster takes place. Reading this book is a great way to absorb a real understanding and, therefore, true empathy for a tragedy’s victims.
The title comes from several $2 bills twisted into a rose given to Miss Chocolate on her 50th birthday. The rose, though muddy and torn, survived Katrina and retained its value despite what it had gone through. That’s one of the messages Miss Chocolate has been sharing. There’s much more. Consider this a “Must Read.”
Excerpt: Not only was my church gone, every church in the city was damaged or destroyed by the floodwaters. Ironically, many of the bars and strip joints in the French Quarter were open for business. There was no place open to praise God, but plenty of places to drink and have a good time. I imagined Satan’s laughter. Was he thinking he had finally won a battle against God’s children? (p. 86) It would take a people totally sold out to the lordship of Christ to ever make a difference in New Orleans. Maybe we’d had too many members [at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church.] God had cleaned out every church in metropolitan New Orleans – now it was time to get busy. (p. 100)
I did not simply survive Katrina, I overcame Katrina. God took me to a higher level than ever I could have imagined. (p. 121)