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Tell us by leaving a voicemail at 702 -706 -TALK, that's 702 -706 -T -A -L -K, or email us at podcast at StoryCorps .org.
And remember to listen for a special prompt at the end of the episode.
Hi, I'm Dave Ise, founder of StoryCorps.
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This fall has brought one of the most devastating hurricane seasons ever.
Turning to the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the death toll now rising to at least 215.
Florida is racing to prepare for Hurricane Milton, a storm that could be one of the worst to ever hit the state.
On Hurricane Milton.
And tore into Florida as a powerful category three, of course, adding new misery to that region already left ravaged by Helene.
Seen a lot of flooding.
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.
In this episode of our season called Stepping Up, we've got two stories about people who Really do live that whole love that neighbor thing.
I'm Jasmine Morris and I'm Michael Garofalo It's the story core podcast from my PR music When you think about hurricanes hitting the U .S., it's hard not to think about August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
One of the neighborhoods that was hit the hardest was the Lower Ninth Ward.
And 10 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.
In Lower Ninth Ward, resident Bernal Kotlin wanted to change that.
He 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.
Bernal first recorded with StoryCorps in 2015 with his mother Lily.
We'll hear that conversation and a follow -up from just last year.
Bernal starts by remembering how he evacuated before Hurricane Katrina and what it was like when he finally returned to his neighborhood.
I remember coming back home.
That was the first time I cried.
We lost everything.
Yep. 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 room.
There's nowhere for people to go buy a loaf of bread.
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 the building, everybody thought that I was crazy.
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 you make anything out of this?
But you were one of my very interesting sons.
I always jump into things you had no business doing.
It was hard. It was really 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 would never forget.
You served the very first snowball and the first customer cried because she said she never thought the Lord Knight Ward was coming back.
You saw something that I didn't see.
I'm glad you took the chance.
It was a headache back then.
But now it's all worth it.
It was all worth it.
And if it takes me to do it by myself, I'm going to put one business at a time back into the Lord Knight Ward because it's home.
My name is Bernal Coughlan and I'm here with my mom's Lily Collin, also known as number one.
Number one. Do you remember when we first did StoryCorps?
Yes. 2015 I think. How have things changed since then?
Some things has not changed.
The Lord Knight Ward is still stuck in 2005.
Because when you turn on TV, what you see, you see Bourbon Street, you see the Saints, you see everything's living good.
Take 10 minutes ride to the Lord Knight 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 because 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?
Because it's already after dark.
So I had to ask why are you at my building after dark?
And she said I had free Wi -Fi.
She came over there 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.
You had lots of different obstacles like Hurricane Ida or COVID.
Why did you stay open during those times?
Because there were many people that were doing much worse than us.
I remember I ain't going to say the lady's name because she still shops today.
But as an elderly lady, she had her grandkids with her and she had a gallon of milk and some candies, some chips for the kids.
And she attempted to swipe the card and it declined.
And she stood there and cried.
Now 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 because at that time we were supposed to have your money come back and pay.
And then I start 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.
Yeah, you care in your community, strictly on your back.
And sometime I worry about you.
Is there anything that would make you just give up?
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 mad at it in a six shooter.
And then other days I cried and I have to sit in my car for a few minutes and get myself composed because I have to be positive for everybody else.
What would you hope your legacy to be?
I never really thought about that.
But sometimes I like to 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 in 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. I appreciate you and I know the neighborhood appreciate you much more than you would ever know.
That's Bernal Kotlin and his mother, Lily Kotlin, for StoryCorps in New Orleans.
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.
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There's a house on the north side of Minneapolis called The St.
Jane House. 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.
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.
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 12 boys in a big Catholic family.
The north side 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.
At StoryCorps, they sat down to remember how they first met.
Sunday, I go to church, and there you were, a Baptist minister, preaching at a Catholic church.
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 north side in our community, you chose to go there.
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.
And I remember being so touched by that, and I thought I need to go and show up at one of these vigils.
I remember you coming up, and you got this kind of humble body language thing, you know?
And I don't know how you experienced me, but I feel like I'm a tough guy, and you're a soft guy.
Agree. 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.
I kind of assumed that it was probably on a side that wasn't the side I wanted you to land, 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, but I ran out to the middle of the street and tackled you with the biggest bear hug.
I said, you, you are who I thought you were.
And that was so special to me, you know?
And then from then on, I think it was very easy to be me with you.
And for me, I've been awed that you've been willing to take the risk.
You were exposing me to things like 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.
— Don and Brian's friendship continued to grow over the years.
And then the pandemic hit in 2020.
— 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?
It was the first time I'd experienced partnership.
It was like, what would it be like to not do life alone?
We only had owned each other about six weeks or eight weeks when I told you, I'm going to marry Warren.
You remember that? So I asked you if you would preside at our wedding.
And you said yes. Then sadly, as you know, Warren and I both got COVID and five weeks later he died.
— I just, I still can't fully understand it.
It's really unimaginable to me.
When you asked me if I would officiate the wedding, I felt that the journey we were on together, that I was your guy.
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.
— 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.
— It's been a mutual benefit.
It's really our relationship.
I have 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.
— Our lives could hardly have been more different.
It was not predictable that we'd be friends.
And not only friends, but brothers.
I mean, I'm all in.
We're all in. — We're all in.
— Brian Mogren and his friend Don Samuels.
They're actually taking a trip together at the end of the years, during uncertain times.
— 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.
— The number again is 702 -706 -T -A -L -K.
Or you can email us at podcast at StoryCorps .org.
— Next week. — Sandy 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.
— This episode was produced by Jasmine Morris, our senior producer's Jadesti Kendall.
Max Young -Rice is our producer.
— Our technical director is Jarrett Floyd.
Amy Drosdowska is our executive producer.
And our fact checker is Katie Scott.
— The art for this season was created by Liz McCarty.
— Special thanks to producers Lyna Onwar and Carrie Hillman.
Thanks to facilitators Erica Romero, Danielle Anderson, and Ian Gonzalez.
I'm Jasmine Morris.
— And I'm Michael Garofalo.
Thanks for listening.
— Support for this podcast comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
