Taken with my Canon PowerShot digital camera, this is a picture of a bike and helmet taken November, 2006.  Our work team pulled it from a house which we entered for the first time, 14 months after the flooding resulting from Hurricane Katrina.  The setting was the Gentilly district in New Orleans, which sustained 8 feet of water for a 3 week period following the failure of the levees.  The bike belonged to the granddaughter of the couple who lived in the house we were gutting.

The trash pile we created, on which the bike rested, was the sum of many years of life and many dreams.
As a grandmother myself, with a granddaughter who would have fit this bike, the tragedy of this scene was compelling.  Families enjoy such lovely times, riding the sidewalks of a tree-shaded neighborhood, enjoying the play of grandkids.  There is a tricycle in my garage too, for visits.  This New Orleans family is scattered now, and I wonder if the granddaughter who rode this bike has a place to come play and visit now.