photography: Rick Lew
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"I can't believe so many people asked about us.” Mary Cooper's face brightens like a broad magnolia as I tell her why we want to come back and visit her and Tomio Thomann in their Bywater neighborhood, about 20 blocks from the French Quarter. She pauses and places her hand on her chest as if to catch her breath, a moment to take in this overwhelming response by Cottage Living readers inquiring after their post-hurricane plight.
Mary shows me through the two-story Creole cottage we featured in our September 2005 issue. It's one of many "old-house projects" dear to her heart, and she points out water damage from Katrina. "When we returned in early October after going back and forth from Jeanerette, Louisiana, we found the back door had been broken into, but it was animal rescuers." She points proudly to the "tattoos" on her house and those all up and down the street—marks from the National Guardsmen, a secret language that translates into a form of survival. (The zero under an X means no bodies were found inside.) Mary's daughter had to be rescued from the attic of her home. "But we’re all safe," she says several times, trying to believe it herself. "As for the cottage, it took about a week for our house to dry out, and, so far, we've had no problems with mold." "I'm so blessed," she continues. "We had some roof leaks, but other than that we're very lucky."
photography: Rick Lew
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So what do the lucky do in this post-Katrina city? They gather with loved ones and neighbors to share in a new understanding
of what it truly means to give thanks. And in New Orleans, giving thanks has always been about sharing food and drink with family
and friends. In the kitchen, Mary makes the most of holiday leftovers by cooking up another incredible meal fit for kings (aka her friends and neighbors). She saves the turkey carcass for her divine Turkey and Andouille Gumbo; leftover potatoes go into her Creamy Potato Salad, which she serves in the bowl with the gumbo and rice. "There are some parts of Louisiana that will argue about whether you put the potato salad in the middle of the bowl or on the side," she says. "But, of course, we all know that gumbo without rice is a mortal sin." We also know that you can't have a party in Louisiana without the libations, so Mary and Tomio start their guests off with Champagne Cocktails—bubbly with sugar cubes soaked in traditional Peychaud bitters—a bittersweet symbol of the times.
"We're so fortunate," Tomio says. "Our friends and neighbors are back. It's not perfect, but now we just need the rest of the country to come and support us." Mary hands me a Champagne Cocktail, and we toast New Orleans, a city of return—a concrete and real place where homes and hearts are on the mend. | 
