1 Dead in Attic (40 page)

Acknowledgments strike me as a grand gesture of omission, so let me keep it short and necessary: Thanks to my editors at
The Times-Picayune
—James O'Byrne, Mark Lorando, and Ann Maloney—for letting me find my way through this mess.

To the Warriors of Laurel Street, my newspaper brothers and sisters, who fought in the trenches with me.

Thanks to the readers who gave me purpose, a mission, and my reward.

To my family—my heroes—for taking care of me and my kids during our homeless days.

To Katherine, Jack, and James, for giving me a reason to stay alive, keep writing, keep moving, keep getting up, day after day when, truth is, for a long time, I didn't want to.

To Kelly, for the journey. It was a race worth running.

To the doctors, therapists, and counselors who have tried so valiantly to put me back together again.

To Katherine Fausset, my agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd.; Colin Fox, my editor at Simon & Schuster; and his colleague Michele Bové, for believing in this story, this book, these words—and giving them a national audience.

And to New Orleans, my sweet, bedeviling mistress; cunning, baffling, powerful.

Never surrender.

CHRIS ROSE
has been a columnist for
The Times-Picayune
in New Orleans, an essayist for
The PBS News Hour
, and a frequent commentator for National Public Radio's
Morning Edition
. In 2006, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in recognition of his Katrina columns and was awarded a share in the
Times-Picayune
staff's Pulitzer for Public Service. Rose lives in New Orleans with his three children.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rose, Chris

1 dead in attic : after Katrina / Chris Rose.

p. cm.

Originally published: New Orleans, LA. : Chris Rose Books, c2005.

1. Hurricane Katrina, 2005. 2. Hurricanes—Louisiana—New Orleans. 3. Natural disasters—Louisiana—New Orleans. 4. Disaster victims—Louisiana—New Orleans. I. Title. II. Title: One dead in attic.

HV6362005.L8 R67 2007

976.3'35064—dc22

2007019365

ISBN 978-1-5011-2537-9 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4391-2624-0 (ebook)