Tenacity Over Tears: The Life of a Bayou Woman

I want to take this opportunity to introduce my readers to a very special friend from Bayou Du Large, one of the the coastal communities in Terrebonne Parish, La that was  impacted  by the storms of 2005 and now severely in  2008.  Her name is Wendy Wilson Billiot, but she is most affectionately known these days as "Bayou Woman". While I have never met Wendy personally - inasmuch as we have a shared passion for Louisiana's coastal concerns -we've enjoyed a wonderful pen pal relationship via email for the past year or so. There are some folks you just feel an affinity to right off the bat. Wendy is one of them.

In addition to keeping up with her through email,   Wendy publishes a very unique and interesting blog about her life in Bayou Du Large which I read frequently. Well before Gustav and Ike made landfall in coastal Louisiana, I told Wendy I wanted to do a tribute to her and her blog here at Beyond Katrina because I've enjoyed it so much.  After Ike's storm surged pushed into Terrebonne Parish flooding her community and her home, I just knew it was time to make good on that promise.

Wendy's blog, "Life in the Louisiana Wetlands ", (which can be viewed at http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/ ) is a veritable plethora of information about life on the bayou  as seen through the eyes of a true blue Bayou Woman. She covers everything you'd ever want to know there (but are too afraid to ask) from fishing, to bayou cooking, wildlife, plant life and  more.

Wendy is also a hard working and  relentless advocate for the preservation and restoration of Louisiana's fragile wetlands.. Her community of Bayou Du Large is in the  Terrebonne Estuary System, which she is quick to remind is "vanishing at the astonishing rate of a football field every half hour". She has a  USCG captain's license which enables her to take people on tours to see the amazing beauty and degradation of our wetlands. She has also penned a wonderful book, Before the Saltwater Came, an environmental book about our local wetlands and the first of its kind. Her book  is being used to educate students about our disappearing wetlands in  classrooms across the  state, the nation, and indeed all over the world. Likewise, her articles have appeared in many well know magazines and newspapers and she won the  Louisiana Outdoor Writer's Association Excellence in Craft first place award  in 2007 for her articles about Louisiana's coastal issues.

Believe it or not  there is still more - and while  I haven't told Wendy this yet -  this is just the  first in a series of posts I'll be doing about "Bayou Woman". She is one of the most creative, interesting and multi-talented folks I've ever encountered and there is just way too much to share about the cornucopia that is her life in just this one post. I also feel it is important to cover Terrebonne's recovery and rebuilding efforts here, just as I have done for the communities impacted by Katrina and Rita. However, I couldn't share the story of Terrebonne's recovery any better than Wendy can.

As I write, Wendy is working hard to clean up after Gustav and Ike, choosing "tenacity over tears" as she deals with the multitude of personal and collective losses inherent to the impact of two back to back hurricanes.   Her latest blog posts with accompanying photographs (yep she's quite a photog too)  provide an insiders view of the many facets of  hurricane recovery in Terrebonne parish. I do hope you will stop by Wendy's blog at http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/ and peek in on the amazing life of a Bayou Woman!

Margaret Saizan

**Photo courtesy -- Wendy Billiot

Comments

[arkansascajun]

wow! what a woman!

[Bayou Woman]

Margaret,
Thanks so much for doing this. For some reason, the avatar is not coming up. Is it just my computer?
Thanks again!
BW

[lmerie]

What a great article! I have really enjoyed BW's site and learning more about the barrier islands and marshlands. I hate they are having to go through this mess.

Now I will check your site out more.

Good Day!

[Granny Sue]

Thank you for this post about Bayou Woman. I have been reading her blog and exchanging posts with her since last winter. She is indeed everything you say--charming, toug, funny, intelligent, and a fierce advocate for the wetlands and the bayou way of life. it was heartbreaking to see the hurricane damage to her home and Cypress Cottage, which she had worked so hard to restore.