It all started when I was about five. My father was a big James Bond fan, and I was in turn a big fan of my father’s, making me a tiny Bond fan too. One Christmas Day, my dad and I settled down to watch the first TV screening of Live and Let Die, and I was smitten.
My mother always had a keen interest in the darker side of life, including the taboo religions and the Tarot. She is part Gypsy and has a romantic fascination with the mystical. Consequently she has a lot of books. I started to read about Voodoo, and I was particularly fascinated with Baron Samedi. I started to read about its history and origins, and I watched all the films and documentaries, but being from a big city in England, I didn’t really have access to the atmosphere I felt when I watched, say, Angel Heart or Crossroads, or felt the fear of The Serpent and the Rainbow. I could almost smell the humidity, feel the charged air. I wanted my funeral to be a jazz funeral; I wanted Mardi Gras every day. I knew my heart was in New Orleans and decided to move there someday. Then disaster struck.
Hurricane Katrina all but destroyed New Orleans, and my heart and the city’s heart were broken, but I knew that its spirit was not broken, nor its culture and history, and that it would rise again. Last year I went to visit my best friend in Atlanta. I could smell the South in the air, and I knew that I was home, and I plan to move there next year, closer to my dream.
In a strange kind of parallel, I got that same feeling when I first landed in New Toulouse. I was advised by a gentleman in Caledon that I might like it here, and so I came to have a look-see and fell in love with it. I bought land immediately and was amazed by the friendliness and warm welcome of the people here. I have found a home in SL that allows me to live out the life that has been calling me in RL for over thirty years.
In New Toulouse, this Mama has found her way home.
~Louhi Gothly
Originally published on January 23, 2009.
