This past year has been a trial for me and my family. In January I lost my grandfather, Robert Edward Fraser. In March, my grandmother Billie Faye Burnett-Ritter left this earth. Then, in June my uncle, Kenneth Edward Burnett also passed. While dealing with the grief of loosing these members of my family the months of August and September brought flooding waters to my home in Lafayette, LA.
As I lost my home and had to leave with my “tail between my legs” to my mother’s house in Texas to begin rebuilding my life, it also gave me the break I desperately needed. As I sat outside on the veranda one evening I was thinking of the events that had unfolded over the course of this year. Then I noticed it, a star shining brightly in defiance of the still lite evening sky. As I looked at it, the more I found myself wanting to be that shining star. Although it was not yet dark enough for the other lights to appear, it shined it’s light with great visibilty in the evening sky. It was that evening as a sat there, that I decided that the events that have happened should not keep me from being able to live happily, but instead to live in memory of those who have passed and shine defiantly like that star into tomorrow. I have a lot more to do before I can build to what I lost in the flood waters, but I will continue to shine brightly. As we are now in the holiday season may we all remember, be like that star was for me that night, we must all continue to shine brightly because we never know who’s star we might be.
Daniel S. Burnett
House of Burnett, Director