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| User: | chicago_cajun (240423) Pontilly Prince
Rebuilding the 9th ward |
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| Name: | chicago_cajun | |||||||||
| E-mail: | daplasmasnake@aol.com | |||||||||
| Bio: | If there was one thing in Remy life that stayed consistent it was love for the land he called home New Orleans. From the food, to the jazz, to the people NOLA was in his blood. Remy was born the second youngest of seven Children to a Chef and local zydeco musician Herbert “Boozie” Cormier and his wife Jessica. His parents came from two very different paths, his father was a local boy who had never been further then Shreveport his whole life. Jessica was a new York socialite who had run away from home. Differences be damned she fell in love one night in a club on bourbon street and nine months later had her first child a boy named Cyr. The two married sometime in the next year though the date was never clear since it had been done on a whim. Within seven years of that date they had five children and showed no sign of slowing down. Money was tight but the couple managed to secure a small place in Pontchartrain Park near Mirtha Street and Piety Drive. The Cormier’s would go on to raise seven children in that house. The predominantly all black neighborhood never frowned on the Cormiers, primarily due to Boozie’s outlandish personality which was impossible to hate. Remy was born on august 23 in 1972 into an neighborhood that had a flare all its own and grew up raised around jazz musicians, crawfish and catfish po-boys. Boozie was a strong advocate of education and instead all his kids would go on to finish high school unlike him. All of Boozie’s kids did just that, made it through high school and then stopped their education. Cyr opened an auto garage which went on to employee many members of the family. Remy was different though. Remy grew tired of living with just enough to get by. He grew up tired of going to bed in a house that was to small and living his life in hand me down cloths. That’s what drove Remy to be the first Cormier to cross state lines in over four decades. Remy had excelled in all levels of school and had earned a full academic scholarship to Louisiana State University. He graduated Suma Cum Luda and soon after that left to move to Chicago to attend Northwestern University School of Law. When Remy made it to the north he was in for an cultural awakening. To anyone it would have seemed normal October day, but to Remy it was the first time he ever saw snow. He had moved to Chicago having never owned a down coat. Remys culture shock didn’t pertain just to snow, in his classes and in his internships with law firms he was seen as something a novelty act. His accent, his laid back demeanor, his style of dress were something to be laughed at. While Law School was hard enough Remy had to work twice as hard to prove everyone wrong. He had to demonstrate that his accent wasn’t a handicap or a liability. He was able to do this by sacrificing his entire social life and circle. He rarely did anything that didn’t have his nose in a book. He graduated in 1996 ranked first in his class and went to work for a large corporate law firm. Not a single member of his family attended his graduation, since he hadn’t spoken to his family since beginning law school. Remy became a professional success, making partner when he turned 30. He was widely viewed as one of the most brilliant litigators in the city, one of the city’s most sought after bachelors and the life of every party he went to. With all of that there was still something missing in his life. For almost eight years Boozie and the rest of the family hadn’t spoken to Remy. That changed when Boozie was diagnosed with lung cancer in December of 2002. After that phone call Remy understood that even though he had always wanted more, that without his family he had nothing. The same week he quit his high paying law firm, put his condo on the gold coast up for sale and moved back to the lower class neighborhood he had grown up in. He bought a house across the street from his parents and went about rebuilding his relationship with his family. His 4 brothers and 2 sisters still all lived in the area and were thrilled to have him back. His parents however were slow to warm to his return. In the meantime Remy had decided that defending corporations to pillage the sea wasn’t what the world needed. He opened up a local legal aid clinic and soon was building ties in his neighborhood again. Remy’s life was just about back to where he wanted it to be when on his 32 birthday disaster struck. The day that would live in infamy in the hearts of every resident of the ninth ward was also Remy’s birthday. The problem with the Cormier’s is that all of the Cormiers (who had now spread in population into the low 20) lived within a mile and a half of each other. Remy’s mother refused to leave before Katrina hit unless someone stayed with her house through the storm. Having no family and being true to the selfless nature his mother had raised him with Remy volunteered. While the rest of the family evacuated Remy stayed behind. When the ninth street levees broke Remy had been asleep on his sofa, he had woken up with the loud popping sound and ran to the window just in time water swell around the house of his childhood. Remy having no idea what to do made a run for the attic that finished in a swim. When he reached the attic, he was able to find some tools and cut a hole in the roof. Remy stayed there for about a day and a half before he was rescued by one of the coast guard helicopters. It took some time but after evacuating the city Remy was reunited with his family in Shreveport. Out of work and with free time Remy stayed close to his family and after all this time had finally changed back into the family loving Cajun kid he was before college. Remy was one of the first people back in the ninth ward. As soon as he was cleared he went back and expanded his legal aid clinic to also serve as a neighborhood relief organization. He lived in a FEMA trailer and worked out of another until both his small office was habitable again and his home was rebuilt. Remy is now in the process of rebuilding his parents home while serving as the head lawyer and president of the Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly Woods legal aid and recovery Clinic. | |||||||||
| Schools: | None listed | |||||||||
| Friends: |
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| Friend of: | 13: alyx, arey, devinalmighty, dreamofdom, ethan_mcfarlin, jambalaya, jessies, juniper_breeze, lee_rossi, merri, rare_jewel, troma, wtfmatt | |||||||||
| Account type: | Free Patient | |||||||||
