Annabelle Terrebonne and Gracious Duncan

Proverbs 11:29 ...and the foolish will be servant to the wise hearted.

While visiting a friend at Ochner's hospital in New Orleans, I met two wonderful ladies, Annabelle Terrebonne, and Gracious Duncan.  They are second cousins, once removed, on their stepmother's brother's half-sister's side.  That’s Annabelle’s story and she’s sticking to it.  These two ladies are animated, energetic, deeply caring people that love good stories and laughter.   They have more stories and jokes than their mamas have relatives. Family and friends come first in their lives.  They are West Bankers as well as their parents and grandparents and are proud of it.   You would think they were sisters, the way they finish each other’s sentences.  The have lived next door to each other most of their lives.  Gracious even married her stepfather's son from a different marriage.

 Annabelle is a nurse at Tulane, (she’s the one on the left).   She possesses a strong N’Awlins accent and loves to talk.  When I introduced myself, she looked me up and down before saying, “Who’s your mama n’dem?”  There are no strangers in her world because everyone is treated as if they’re family. She tells it like it is and is usually blunt. Being a nurse, she is required to wear a name tag, while at work, for identification purposes.  This causes some confusion to those with little common sense when seeing her last name.  It upsets her to no end when a patient looks at the name tag reading “Terrebonne” and then says, “Are you from Terrebonne Parish?”  She will straighten to her full five-foot-two-inch height, stare them down and say rather sarcastically with much vigor in her deep N’Awlins voice, “Now why the hell would I run around with the name of a parish on my name tag? You insane? Dat's my name you couillon! I know your mama done taught you better den dat?”

 When not nursing, Annabelle is a Cajun Re-enactor for the Grande Derangement, (the forced removal by the British of the Acadian people from the present-day Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island causing death of thousands of people).  She usually pretends she doesn't understand the term fully and just acts deranged, which brings knee-slapping laughs from Gracious.

 Gracious is a scholar and teaches at Tulane.  She was there visiting people in the hospital to cheer them up, her favorite thing to do. Gracious was dressed in a bright red above the knee dress, high heels and more jewelry around her neck and wrists than madams on Bourbon Street.  You would never guess she is a professor the way she dresses when not lecturing at the University. You might find her going through garbage looking like she’s homeless, or she may wear a bright orange wig (Bozo the clown orange) and be dressed in short shorts as she visits antique shops on Magazine Street.  Upon hearing her story, I said out loud, “Good gracious!”.  She smiled at me and said, “You got that right dahling,” and slapped me hard on the back.

 Gracious, also, is a researcher in the field of Genetics and is sought after as a popular speaker at conventions and University campuses across the United States.  She has an infectious laugh that is throaty and low with a heart of pure gold. Gracious has recently established the first genealogical database research web site for Purebred Registered Canines…called C.A.R. or Canines of the American Revolution.  She owns a beautiful English Bull dog that she claims is a direct descendant of George Washington’s favorite canine. Her ancestor, she says, was a favored slave of General Washington and was given a dog for a reward by the General.  The family has carefully and proudly maintained the line throughout the years.  

 Yeah, you right.  Gotta love ‘em, BLESS THEIR HEARTS.

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