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About the Family

The trials of Job. Leroy Johnson, 57, of Pascagoula, Mississippi is living the trials of Job. Hurricane Katrina wrecked his house; only months away from completing the rebuilding, a bad wire ignited and destroyed the home; 23 days later, his two grandsons, ages two and three, died in a fire at their apartment. It is a tragedy of biblical proportions.

Leroy was living in his boyhood home on Tucker Avenue when Hurricane Katrina flooded it with four feet of water. With hopes of reclaiming residency in the small house by Christmas of 2006, he started repair work. As is common in our post-Katrina world, the work was painfully slow but progressive.

November 3, the Christmas deadline looked reasonable as Leroy worked tirelessly on the house in order to move out of the FEMA trailer he shared with Bronstine, the mother of his children, and his 19-year-old son, Leroy, Jr. The next day, a bad wire in the back bedroom created a flame that burned through the house and reduced Leroy's dreams to ashes. What he had salvaged from the wrath of Katrina, he lost to the fury of the fire. Except his mama's Bible. She had passed away years earlier, but the Bible stayed with Leroy in her house, and no destruction would befall it.

The one true light in this man's life laden with misfortune was his grandchildren, specifically three-year-old Phillip, Jr. and two-year-old Keyshawn, better known as Juicy and Squeeze. Leroy had helped raise those boys from birth while their parents went to school and work. His pride and joy, he took them everywhere with him. They loved Paw-Paw's dogs, much to the dogs' chagrin, and the swingset in the backyard. Juicy and Squeeze were full of mischief and full of life and full of love.

Katrina forced the little boys, their parents, P.J. and Claudia, and their little sister, Nykeria, into an apartment on Jasmine Avenue in Moss Point. Around eight o’'clock the morning of November 27, 2006, Claudia awoke inside her worst nightmare. Her sons were screaming, “'Mommy, help me! Help me!'” There was fire coming from their bedroom. Claudia could not get to them, so she grabbed Nykeria and ran outside to get help. An unidentified passerby tried to get to the boys to no avail, so did a firefighter without success when he arrived. The screams stopped. The fire went out.

Claudia's daddy drove up to the family's apartment to find her wailing in the street. They were gone. His babies, his buddies, were gone. Darkness and despair are cruel extinguishers of hope and joy.

P.J., Claudia, and Nykeria are redefining their lives in a rental house. Paw-Paw, Granny, and Uncle Leroy are still in cramped quarters in their trailer sitting on the property in front of the burned out shell of their home. They have a resurrected hope that someone somewhere somehow will be able to help them.

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