The Flag on the Mailbox

After Hurricane Katrina swallowed everything Margaret Boudreaux owned in the Lower Ninth Ward, she stood in ankle-deep mud and told her grown children she was done. Done with New Orleans. Done trusting that life could hold together. Her son Daryl drove down from Baton Rouge the next weekend and rebuilt her mailbox before touching anything else. He cemented it deep, painted it bright yellow, and fixed a small American flag to the post.…