A Small World, A Big Hug

Althea Martin copes with the loss of many of her possessions and severe flood damage to her home in New Orleans. (Photo by G.K. Photography)

Althea Martin, a school nurse at Mildred Osborne Elementary in New Orleans, was in a thrift store in Arkansas when the far-reaching impact of Hurricane Katrina finally hit her.

"I heard a little voice say 'Hey, Ms. Martin,' and I turned to see two of my students. We hugged and I cried for the first time," she recalls, pausing to compose herself. With thousands of New Orleans residents dispersed in neighboring states and all over the country in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it seemed providential that she would bump into her own students hundreds of miles away, united by loss and homelessness.

"It's just starting to become real," says Martin, a school nurse for 16 years and a member of the United Teachers of New Orleans.

Before returning to New Orleans in October to find her house still standing but severely damaged by flooding, she spent nearly a month in a temporary home in Sherwood, Ark., a small town just north of Little Rock, after she and her family fled Katrina. "I didn't take anything with me," says Martin. "I really thought we would be back in a couple of days."

Martin managed to contact several of her colleagues who had scattered to other states and also contacted Vi Parramore, the president of the Jefferson County (Ala.) AFT in Birmingham, who raised several hundred dollars to help Martin and her family.

Martin is determined not to leave New Orleans and is now staying at a hotel in the area, although she knows her home and her school have been devastated. Most days, she admits, she is "in somewhat of a daze."

"I don't want to run away. I'm not a quitter," she says. She plans to look for a school nurse position closer to home in nearby Jefferson Parish. "Any job I take would be temporary because I want to go back to help rebuild my school." [Adrienne Coles]