I was born January 5th, 1957.  Wayne was a year and a half older than me – so I think Gail was about 2.5 years older than me.  I was born in Metairie.  I was a little kid when we moved to St. Louis and I think we were there for about four years.  I remember we moved houses one time on the bottom of a hill to the top of a hill and the whole neighborhood pitched in to move all the furniture up the hill.  Kind of a different time, I guess.  

 

I was young so I don’t have too many memories from St. Louis.  I do remember Gail wanted a dog and we got this dog Casey from one of the neighbors whose child was allergic to it.   

Maybe during the last year in St. Louis I went to kindergarten because when I got to Cleveland, Ohio I think I was in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade… maybe … it’s so hard to remember.  But I remember that when we went to Cleveland, Ohio that we lived on top of another hill and the school bus could make it down the hill but couldn’t always make it up the hill so to catch the bus to school we had to hike it down to the bottom.  And because I was the youngest one catching that bus, I was always trucking behind my brothers and sisters and in the winter when it snowed, the snow would be so deep I could barely do it.

-The school in Cleveland was called St. Richard - coincidentally the school in Jackson we went to later was also called St. Richard.  I recall in Cleveland, we all used to go to a park and get in this maple tree and we used to put Charlie in it because he was the “baby” and we’d pull the branch down, stick him up in it, and let him go!  Back then in Cleveland, none of the yards had fences and all the yards were open and it was a big old area, and we all played in the snow and had fun. I do recall a time we came down from Cleveland here to New Orleans and we stopped at a gas station to go to the bathroom and we all got out and Gail used the bathroom and we left without doing a headcount and I realized a few miles down the road before I realized - “Where’s Gail?” and we all turned around and poor Gail was there crying. 

 

Gail would play with all the boys because who else would there be?  When we went to certain families – my parent’s friends down in New Orleans for example – Gail would have girls her age there often. But in general, Gail was always there with us no matter what.  In Cleveland we would walk through the woods to get to this park and Gail might be more the overseer and the babysitter, but she was always there. 

 

But by Jackson Gail was older and now she was actually dating boys.  My dad had a station wagon that she learned how to drive but there was a telephone poll REAL close to the driveway, and Gail ran into it once or twice and my dad would get all mad over it.  But that wasn’t too often my dad would get mad with Gail. He was more strict with me growing up, because I was the middle child and didn’t do well in school and my dad would always threaten me in Jackson that if I was old enough I’d be going to Vietnam. 

-When Rene was born in Jackson, Gail tended to Rene quite a lot.  She definitely played a big role when Rene was a baby, more than the other kids. In fact I have some memory of Rene getting something caught her in ear at some point and Gail being upset about that. And I remember her in Cleveland playing a pretty big role taking care of Johnny.  She was just real caring and responsible like that.

 

In general I think I was in a different spot with Gail.  Because Gail and Gary and Wayne were in High School when I was in 6th grade or so, so it was like they were in a different world than me.  But the kids younger than me like Johnny and Rene were young enough to know Gail more like a caretaker.  And I was there in the middle somewhere – though I do think I went there with my parents.  I remember baby-sitting the kids with my parents, and the next thing I remember is when we went to Gulf Shores.  And when Danielle and Lauren were small I would take them out to the beach with me, and Gail would trust me with that – she thought that I was adult enough to do it – except for that one time that I let Lauren take a shit in the sand, and we just covered it up with sand.  When I was swimming in the Gulf with the girls, and I could float holding one of them and the other one would be on my back – and then the jellyfish would come along and we’d all be getting stung and Danielle tried to climb up on my head.  And Gail would always use my cigarette tobacco to kill the sting.  And then one year I brought meat tenderizer to kill the sting so they didn’t have to use my cigarettes. And by the way, Gail would smoke one every now and then.  And then one time we were in this cabin kind of thing in the gulf that had a private pier, and the girls all decided to go skinny dipping.  And then I was told to go call them up for lunch … and Gail was like “no!” And it was a mess. I had go back to the cabin and bring the girls in and tell Gail what was going on.  She was real mad but I had to remind her that they were just teenagers the kind of things she did when she was a teenager.

 

The trips to the beach would happen every 2-3 years.  But after she got with the guy who moved to Alaska, I never got around to going to see her in Alaska and I never saw her in Colorado so I only saw her when she came into town. Then she got remarried to Mark and I remember her getting sick and my mom going out there quite a bit.  

 

So the next time I really saw Gail a lot is when she came back here.  And I would go cut the grass and try to be the good brother.  And I’d go sit and talk with her.  And me and Gail would always connect. I mean we’d talk about the stupidest shit but she’d ask me things and I’d help her if I could, if she ever needed anything, or moving anything, and it got kind of crazy when all the flies were getting in there.   And then they found out she had Alzheimer’s and I felt bad because my mom thought it was something she had done, and thought she could cure it and all that.  And I tried to talk to my mom several times about that and I tried to talk to her about that, “It’s not YOU, it’s just something that happened.”  But I think she had to study so much in school and I think she had so much knowledge in her recall at one time, we used to joke about hairstyle or something, and Gail would say “let me show you how you ought to wear your hair,” and she would actually cut my hair for me, which is something I will never forget. 

 

My dad worked with someone at century insurance – Mr. Martello – and he had a daughter Karen that was friends with Gail from us coming down here to visit.  So by the time we moved back down to New Orleans,  Gail already knew Karen and with us being down here they became really good friends.  And I think they went to high school together in Chapelle.

  

By the time I got older, like in high school or something, Gail was already off to college.  But I do remember staying with Jack and Gail for like a week or so in Baton Rouge, off of Highland road, they lived in kind of a shack, I guess you would call it a bungalow but it was made with plywood walls and I thought these people must be freezing in the wintertime.  

 

When I was in the boy scouts I came home from Arkansas with a dog.  And we already had Charlie and they didn’t want another puppy.  And Gail took it from me, then Wayne had it, they called it Brett.  That dog was SO smart.  I think Brett became a big part of Jack and Gail and Wayne’s world.

 

I’m sure you heard about the canoe trip and one night my parents were at the Langlois’s house for a party, and my parents told me I could have some friends over.  And my friend was on the phone all night with his girlfriend, so when he finally got off the phone it rang right away.  And it was one of them - either Gary, Gail, Wayne, I can’t remember - calling from jail and I had to go over to tell my parents at the Langlois’s house.  And I wrote everything down about what jail they were calling from and …oooooohhhh…. my dad was MAD with everyone there that day.  And my dad had warned them not to go into Hines County.  That was a big deal when that happened because I don’t believe Gail ever got in trouble before … not growing up.  

 

After Jack and Gail got married they went to France and I didn’t hear from her for a while.  But I went to see her in Texas after she had Danielle.  And then when Lauren was born.  I think I went there with my parents.  I remember baby-sitting the kids with my parents, and the next thing I remember is when we went to Gulf Shores.  And when Danielle and Lauren were small I would take them out to the beach with me, and Gail would trust me with that – she thought that I was adult enough to do it – except for that one time that I let Lauren take a shit in the sand, and we just covered it up with sand.  When I was swimming in the Gulf with the girls, and I could float holding one of them and the other one would be on my back – and then the jellyfish would come along and we’d all be getting stung and Danielle tried to climb up on my head.  And Gail would always use my cigarette tobacco to kill the sting.  And then one year I brought meat tenderizer to kill the sting so they didn’t have to use my cigarettes. And by the way, Gail would smoke one every now and then.  And then one time we were in this cabin kind of thing in the gulf that had a private pier, and the girls all decided to go skinny dipping.  And then I was told to go call them up for lunch … and Gail was like “no!” And it was a mess. I had go back to the cabin and bring the girls in and tell Gail what was going on.  She was real mad but I had to remind her that they were just teenagers the kind of things she did when she was a teenager.

 

The trips to the beach would happen every 2-3 years.  But after she got with the guy who moved to Alaska, I never got around to going to see her in Alaska and I never saw her in Colorado so I only saw her when she came into town. Then she got remarried to Mark and I remember her getting sick and my mom going out there quite a bit.  

 

So the next time I really saw Gail a lot is when she came back here.  And I would go cut the grass and try to be the good brother.  And I’d go sit and talk with her.  And me and Gail would always connect. I mean we’d talk about the stupidest shit but she’d ask me things and I’d help her if I could, if she ever needed anything, or moving anything, and it got kind of crazy when all the flies were getting in there.   And then they found out she had Alzheimer’s and I felt bad because my mom thought it was something she had done, and thought she could cure it and all that.  And I tried to talk to my mom several times about that and I tried to talk to her about that, “It’s not YOU, it’s just something that happened.”  But I think she had to study so much in school and I think she had so much knowledge in her brain, and then with her and Mark fighting and all that, and I think she’d tried to forget things and that shit just comes into it like that.  

 

But every time I went to see her at the memory care, she’d recognize me and my mom always asked me to go with her.  And we’d go to a family function going on, and Gail was always good with dogs and all and we’d go to Johnny’s and Rosco would come out and Gail would sit down and talk to him and he’d be growling and people would get worried.  But Gail would be there and going about her life, we’d just have to watch her.  It’s one thing about Gail, she’d always just be happy about things and not just pissed off about things.  She was really just positive all the time about things, and I think she was that way because she was trying to be helpful to people more.  She told me one time that life is not about everybody else, it’s about what you want to do and decide to do, not what everyone wants you to do.  Your life is going to go because of what you decide, not everyone else.  And that made a lot of sense to me at that time.  And I believed that, and whatever happened in my life happened because I brought it upon myself.  But she was very caring.  And when Gail came back into her lives and moved back here, I tried to help her out as much as I could.