Gulfport Mississippi

Karen on April 27th, 2009

When faced with a complicated congenital heart defect, confidence in the skill and expertise of your child’s surgeon is of paramount importance.  When our son, Nathan, was diagnosed with Scimitar Syndrome, a rare condition characterized by dextrocardia, pulmonary hypoplasia, and Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return, we soon learned that our local surgeons had no personal [...]

Continue reading about Dr. Edward Bove

Karen on April 18th, 2009

My favorite elementary school teacher was Mrs. Elsie Hutto.  I snapped this picture of my rowdy sixth grade class with my parent’s “Instamatic” camera (anybody remember those?  Magicubes?).  I’m fairly certain that Mrs. Hutto had left the room because, even though she was a nice lady, she would never have allowed us to cut up [...]

Continue reading about Mrs. Hutto’s Sixth Grade Class

Karen on April 13th, 2009

I’ll be the first to admit that the special event that usually makes Easter memorable at our house is the morning discovery of baskets filled with Gold Brick eggs, chocolate bunnies, and Peeps.  That’s changed.  Biannually, Grace Memorial Baptist Church presents “The Living Last Supper,” a dramatic recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting. [...]

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Would you believe I can name almost every one of my second grade classmates?  Mind you, I’m fairly pathetic when it comes to remembering the name of someone I met yesterday, but I’m semi-remarkable when it comes to 1968.  I’m the tall girl in the back row of this photo, first one on the left.  [...]

Continue reading about West Ward Elementary, My School by the Gulf of Mexico

Karen on April 2nd, 2009

The bulk of my memoir, Nathan:  A Heart, A Storm, A Prayer, deals with the figurative storm we faced while seeking a solution to our child’s health crisis.  But smack-dab in the middle of our ordeal, a literal storm dropped on our city like an atomic bomb. I never imagined Hurricane Katrina, the same storm [...]

Continue reading about Did you meet Katrina?