As communities across the Southern United States set about recovering from one of the most devastating hurricane seasons ever, we’re doing what Mr. Rogers always told us to do when the news is scary: we’re looking for the helpers. In this episode, two stories about people who have stepped up for their neighbors, despite their differences.
Leave us a voicemail at 702-706-TALK, or email us at [email protected].
Released on October 22, 2024.
JM: This Fall has brought one of the most devastating hurricane seasons ever…
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ARCHIVAL 1: Turning to the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the death toll now rising to at least 215…
Archival 2: Florida is racing to prepare for Hurricane Milton, a storm that could be one of the worst to ever hit the state…
Archival 3: It tore into Florida as a powerful category 3. Of course adding new misery to that region already left ravaged by Helene.
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JM: And so in this episode… as communities hit hard set about recovering… we’re doing what Mr. Rogers always told us to do when the news is scary…we’re looking for the helpers.
MG: In this episode of our season called Stepping Up… we’ve got two stories about people who really do live that whole love thy neighbor thing.
JM: I’m Jasmyn Morris.
MG: And I’m Michael Garofalo. It’s the StoryCorps podcast from NPR.
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JM: When you think about hurricanes hitting the US…it’s hard NOT to think about August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
MG: One of the neighborhoods that was hit the hardest was the Lower Ninth Ward. And ten years after the storm… the area was still struggling to rebuild. There wasn’t easy access to basic services… like even a grocery store… anywhere nearby.
JM: And Lower Ninth Ward resident Burnell Cotlon wanted to change that. He had lived in the neighborhood his whole life…except for the years he spent overseas in the military. And after the storm… he was working at fast food restaurants and dollar stores to save money. He then used it to buy a dilapidated building on an empty block… and opened a neighborhood grocery.
MG: Burnell first recorded with StoryCorps In 2015… with his mother, Lillie. We’ll hear that conversation… and a follow up from just last year.
JM: Burnell starts by remembering how he evacuated before Hurricane Katrina… and what it was like when he finally returned to his neighborhood.
Burnell Cotlon (BC): I remember coming back home. That was the first time I cried.
Lillie Cotlon (LC): We lost everything.
BC: Yup. I was in that FEMA trailer for almost three years. And I drove around the Ninth Ward. We didn’t have no stores, no barber shops, no laundry rooms.
LC: There’s nowhere for people to go buy a loaf of bread.
BC: Right, you have to catch three buses to get to a store. And I always was taught, if there’s a problem, somebody got to make a move. So, I decided to open up a grocery store. I remember when I first bought that building, everybody thought that I was crazy.
LC: When I peeked in the door before you started working, I said, ‘This is nothing but junk.’ I mean, it was trash and debris on the floor that you had to crawl over and, ‘How can he make anything out of this?’ But you were one of my very interesting sons…
BC: (Laughs)
LC: Always jumping into things you had no business doing. [Laughs]
BC: It was hard, it was real, real hard. And those eight hour days turned into 14, 15 hours a day. But, what motivated me the most was seeing the people that was walking by with the groceries and seeing them get off the bus with all of those bags. That made me work harder. We finally did the ribbon cutting ceremony and that day I will never forget, you served the very first…
LC: Sno-ball.
BC: Sno-ball. And the first customer cried because she said she never thought the Lower Ninth Ward was coming back.
LC: You saw something that I didn’t see. I’m glad you, you took the chance.
BC: It’s a headache back then but now, it’s, it’s worth it.
LC: It’s all worth it.
BC: It was all worth it. And if it takes me doing it by myself I’ma put one business at a time back into the Lower Ninth Ward, ‘cause it’s home.
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BC: My name is Burnell Cotlon and I’m here with my moms, Lillie Cotlon, also known as Number One. Number One, do you remember when we first did StoryCorps?
LC: Yes, uh, 2015, I think. How have things changed since then?
BC: Some things has not changed. The Lower Ninth Ward is still stuck in 2005. ‘Cause, you know, when you turn on the TV, what you see? You see Bourbon Street. You see the Saints.
LC: Yeah you see it.
BC: You see everything’s looking good. Take 10 minutes ride to the Lower Ninth Ward. There’s still no banks. There’s no doctor’s office or dentist’s office. We have none of that. The only thing that changed is my little building. We have a barber shop, a sweet shop, and we now have a laundry room. Everybody come there to the store, ‘cause there’s nowhere else for them to go.
Do you remember I told you about that day they had that little girl behind the grocery store? This is already after dark.
LC: Yeah.
BC: So I had to ask, ‘Why you at my building after dark?’ And she said I had free Wi-Fi.
LC: Yeah.
BC: She came over to do her homework. So I said no, I got to fix this problem. So, the next thing that we’re doing is opening up an internet lounge. I’m extremely happy about that.
LC: You had lots of different obstacles, like Hurricane Ida or COVID; why did you stay open during those times?
BC: ‘Cause there was many people that was doing much worse than us. I remember, I ain’t gonna say the lady’s name ‘cause she still shops today, but it’s an elderly lady, she had her grandkids with her, and she had a gallon of milk and some candy, some chips, you know, for the kids. And she attempted to swipe the card and it declined. And she stood there and cried. And I did something I wasn’t supposed to do, but I did it anyway. I came from behind my counter and I gave her a hug, ‘cause at that time we supposed to have the six feet distance in between us. And I told her, take the items, feed your grandkids, when you get your money, come back and pay.
And then I started seeing that again and again with a lot of other customers. So I got a journal and I wrote down names, and the items they had and how much it is. When they got the stimulus checks, some people did come back and they paid it, and I still have that book today.
LC: Yeah, you’re carrying your community strictly on your back, and sometimes I worry about you. Is there anything that would make you just give up?
BC: Nothing, I’m not a quitter. If you can see the look on some of these customers’ faces, begging for something to eat or a job, it hurts. So some days I’m madder than a six-shooter. And then other days I, I cry, and I have to sit in my car for a few minutes and get myself composed ‘cause I have to be positive for everybody else.
LC: What would you hope your legacy to be?
BC: I never really thought about that. Um, but… something I learned in the military: you know how people say, ‘You only live once?’ That’s not the truth. You don’t just live once. You only die once. You live every day. So every day that you live, you have to do something impactful. You’re not just born to fall in love, have a few kids, get a job, pay your bills, grow old and die. That’s not why you’re here. You have to find out why you’re here. And my purpose is easy. It’s service.
LC: I appreciate you and I know the neighborhood appreciates you much more than you would ever know.
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JM: That’s Burnell Cotlon and his mother, Lillie Cotlon, for StoryCorps in New Orleans.
MG: After a short break…we’ll move from New Orleans to Minneapolis… and hear how two helpers in that city…ended up helping each other.
JM: Stay with us…
JM: There’s a house on the northside of Minneapolis called the St. Jane House.
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JM: It’s a homey sunlit place filled with books and artwork, a three-legged dog named Huckleberry… and it provides a little bit of everything for the community.
MG: It’s a safe place for kids to go after school… get help with homework, have a meal. And it’s a meeting place for prayer and support groups.
JM: And It’s run by a guy named Brian Mogren – he actually lives there, too – and he’s used to a house full of people… since he grew up one of twelve boys in a big Catholic family.
MG: The northside of Minneapolis… is also where Don Samuels lives and works. Don is a Jamaican born ordained Baptist minister turned community leader… and he brings his neighbors together to address gun violence and other problems they face there.
JM: At StoryCorps… they sat down to remember how they first met…
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Brian Mogren: Sunday I go to church and there you were, a Baptist minister preaching at a Catholic church.
Don Samuels: [Laughs].
BM: But you had us all — you had me in the palm of your hand. You were talking about your experience of whenever somebody was killed here on the northside in our community, you chose to go there.
DS: Yeah, stay there from morning till night, don’t eat, and just be there. It was just a deep commitment like, we can’t live like this.
BM: And I remember being so touched by that and I thought I need to go and show up at one of these vigils.
DS: I remember you coming up and you’ve got this kind of humble body language thing, you know.
BM: (Laughs)
DS: And I don’t know how you experience me but I feel like I’m a tough guy…
BM: Mm-hmm.
DS: …and you’re a soft guy. [Laughs]
BM: Agreed. [Laughs]. And I’ve always appreciated you, Don. But after about nine months of showing up at vigils, there was always this part of me inside that felt like, if you really knew who I was, would you still be as kind and welcoming? I wondered, being a gay person, you know, where you landed on that issue.
DS: Mm-hmm.
BM: I kind of assumed that it was probably on a side that wasn’t the side I wanted you to land…
DS: [Laughs]
BM: …but I still wanted to know you.
And then that June I remember going to the Pride parade, and I remember seeing you marching with the Minneapolis city council. And I don’t know if you remember this…
DS: (Laughs)
BM: …but I ran out into the middle of the street and tackled you with the biggest bear hug and said, ‘You! You are who I thought you were.’
DS: (Laughs) Yeah.
BM: And that was so, so special to me. And then from then on, I think it was very easy to be me with you.
DS: And for me, I have been awed that you’ve been willing to take the risk. You were exposing me to things. I was moving into a very intimate relationship with you as a friend, which was new. And it’s been a gift for me to evolve.
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JM: Don and Brian’s friendship continued to grow over the years… and then the pandemic hit in 2020.
BM: I’d never been in a relationship before, all my life, I’d just been kind of waiting. But in that time, I met the love of my life. The first time I told you about him was on the 4th of July, we were sitting on your back deck, and it was 360 degrees of fireworks. Do you remember that? [Laughs]
DS: Yeah [Laughs].
BM: You know, we’re…It was the first time I’d experienced partnership. It was like, what would it be like to not do life alone? We’d only known each other about six weeks or eight weeks when I told you, “I’m going to marry Warren.” You remember that?
DS: Yeah [Laughs].
BM: So I asked you if you would preside at our wedding, and you said yes. And sadly, as you know, Warren and I both got COVID and five weeks later he died.
DS: I just, I still can’t fully understand it. It’s really unimaginable to me. You know, I…when you asked me if I would officiate the wedding, I felt that the journey we were on together, that I was your guy.
BM: Yeah.
DS: Now when you asked me to do the eulogy, I felt inadequate because your feelings were so strong. I didn’t know if I could honor them, you know?
BM: Yeah, well you did and then some. You really truly blew my heart away. You have been there for me just a thousand percent, and I want to thank you.
DS: It’s been a mutual benefit, really, our relationship. I’ve defied being a Black Pentecostal preacher’s son, so I don’t have a home there. And so I’m making a new community now that is not blood, it’s not denominational, it’s not racial. It’s love. And you are my closest brother in that.
BM: Our lives could hardly have been more different. It was not predictable that we’d be friends, and not only friends, but brothers.
DS: I mean, I’m all in. (Laughs) We’re all in.
BM: We’re all in [Laughs].
DS: Yeah.
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JM: Brian Mogren…and his friend, Don Samuels. They’re actually taking a trip together at the end of the month…to attend a conference about the importance of connecting with others… during uncertain times.
MG: So for this week’s question…tell us about a time when a neighbor stepped up for you. Leave us a voicemail at 702-706-TALK.
JM: The number again is 702-706-T-A-L-K. Or you can email us… at podcast AT storycorps DOT org.
MG: Next week…
EL: Sande was very mild-mannered, courteous. He knew he had a job to do the days that he came to the clinic to provide security. And yes, indeed, on that day, his body did protect me.
MG: This episode was produced by Jasmyn Morris. Our Senior Producer is Jud Esty-Kendall. Max Jungreis is our Producer.
JM: Our Technical Director is Jarrett Floyd. Amy Drozdowska is our Executive Producer. And our fact checker is Katie Scott.
MG: The art for this season was created by Liz McCarty.
JM: Special thanks to Producers Liyna Anwar and Kerrie Hillman…and Facilitators Erika Romero, Danielle Andersen and Ian Gonzalez. I’m Jasmyn Morris…
MG: And I’m Michael Garofalo. Thanks for listening…
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