The Life-changing Magic of Coastal Mississippi

It was a vibrant November morning, and I had simply flown again from the countless shoreline of the Mississippi Gulf, my pores and skin nonetheless dewy from the humidity. I’d sat down at my neighborhood café in Charleston to write down this very essay, and borrowed a charger from a person ingesting an Americano. In return, I’d loaned him my pen. It was, you would possibly say, identical to some other day. 

However minutes later, life as I knew it was over. One thing clapped in my head and earlier than I may place my hand the place I felt the thunder, the ground and partitions have been above me. The whole lot was in orbit: the charger, the pen, my espresso and laptop computer. The solar burned my eyes and all of the sudden even the blue gentle of my laptop was unbearably vibrant. I attempted to show away however my neck was locked in place. I closed my eyes. Feeling round for my telephone, muscle reminiscence allowed me to textual content my husband an SOS. 4 hours later, on the ER, he was instructed I’d had a mind aneurysm. Hospital workers instructed him to collect himself, his issues, and our daughter and comply with the ambulance to a bigger hospital’s neurological ICU.

In the present day, one yr later, I’ve fought to regain my energy, my skill to write down, and my sense of self. I dwell with short-term reminiscence loss. I sit right here now, studying the phrases I’d began to draft on that life-changing day, and understand many sentences fail to make sense, as a result of they have been being written as my mind was being flooded with blood. 

However that is what coastal Mississippi taught me: that to be artistic is to hope. These 4 days spent touring the 30-odd glowing miles from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi and Ocean Springs after which again are my final long-term reminiscence. The expertise would information me in restoration. Listed here are the issues I’ll always remember.

When Michelle, my Lyft driver, pulled up exterior Gulfport-Biloxi Worldwide Airport, she greeted me like I used to be an previous pal, and insisted on loading my suitcases into her trunk. “Let me assist you,” she stated, then joked, “What you bought in right here? One million {dollars} for the on line casino?” 

“If I win, I’ll share with you,” I instructed her. 

“No you received’t,” she laughed, like we’d grown up collectively. 

We rode the 40 minutes to my first cease in Bay St. Louis quipping forwards and backwards. Michelle had encyclopedic information of what had been made and remade on the coast after every of the hurricanes — most notably Katrina, which decimated this a part of Mississippi in 2005. She confirmed me new boardwalks that join glittering resorts and mom-and-pop retailers and narrated the sustained cycles of destruction and rebuilding. 

All over the place I turned, I noticed creation, re-creation, and a heart-first, full-throttle philosophy of getting on with life. I began to imagine that, attempt as others would possibly to scale back coastal Mississippi to a story of survivorship, this place was outlined not by the calamities it had overcome, however by the openness it maintains, regardless of the storms.

Michelle dropped me off on the Pearl Resort, a boutique property close to the marina in Bay St. Louis. I had a late lunch and wandered round city seeking a memento store. Many shops have been within the means of closing after I arrived, the homeowners sweeping or rolling up rugs. And but — there was that openness once more — most shopkeepers stated “Are available in, it’s alright.” 

Morning got here, and with it the sounds of seabirds cawing and boats slicing by way of the water exterior. From my balcony, I watched nautical flags and banners for charity occasions flapping within the breeze. It was November, and most houses hadn’t but taken down their Halloween decorations. Celebrations are huge in Bay St. Louis, I discovered as soon as I sat down with Ashley Planchard, a supervisor of the Mockingbird Café, for a chat over a house-recipe chai and a cinnamon loaf. The café had change into the city’s public front room after Katrina, Planchard instructed me. She has an outrageous love for her hometown and its festivals — she attends the city’s Dolly Ought to Competition (a tribute to Ms. Parton) and Frida (Kahlo) Fest, which the café additionally sponsors, and is an annual participant within the “Witches Stroll” on the Saturday earlier than Halloween. I regretted having come every week too late, with out my tween daughter — my very own mini-witch. However Planchard assured me subsequent yr’s stroll could be right here earlier than we knew it. 

Whereas she continued to inform me concerning the city’s rituals, I multitasked (one of many final occasions my mind could be able to this feat), jotting notes whereas scheming a few potential return with my woman. And that’s after I knew that I’d made a reference to the place, which is to say, its folks. Isn’t that what a worthwhile vacation spot is? A spot you’d like to come back again to with a beloved somebody out of your life — somebody whose worldview you’re serving to to form? 

The worldview in Bay St. Louis was clear: destruction is bound to go to us on this life, irrespective of who we’re or the place we dwell, and the one solution to climate it’s to have an open hand and borrow from our neighbors. To remake life many occasions over, if we should.

Subsequent, I ventured east to town of Biloxi to see not what I may discover, however what may discover me. After I arrived for lunch at McElroy’s Harbor Home, a seafood joint proper on the Gulf, my gaze alighted on a fleet of close by shrimp boats. 

I used to be born within the Philippines and moved to South Carolina in my early twenties, and after I set out on this journey, I’d stated to the wind that I needed to fulfill fellow Asian Southerners. And Mississippi as soon as once more rewarded me. I wandered over to the docks, and there I met Kim Pham, a shrimper from Vietnam, who was happy to study the place I’d grown up. Pham had been a refugee within the Philippines within the late Nineteen Seventies, after the battle in her personal nation. 

We talked about her journey from Vietnam to the Philippines to Atlanta, and eventually to Mississippi. She’d labored at a manufacturing unit in Biloxi till it shifted operations to Mexico, then turned to shrimping. She instructed me that the previous couple of years had been the toughest in her 20 years within the business. Now, she stated, her children have been grown and she or he deliberate to comply with them wherever they go, study a brand new talent in one more new commerce if she needed to, reinvent herself once more. As I used to be stepping off the boat, Pham practiced the Francophone syllables of my title and gave me a thumbs-up. 

I’ll always remember that gesture. The truth is, I repeated it after I awoke after the surgical procedure that saved my life, and my husband stated the one phrase I wanted to listen to: Cinelle. 

Pham wasn’t the one inspiring lady I met in Biloxi. I additionally took time to go to the ceramics middle on the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Artwork, the place I talked to a podcast producer and potter named Georgia Sparling. Throughout the pandemic she, like many individuals, boomeranged again house to Mississippi, and threw herself right into a life filled with healthful actions like kayaking and crafting. 

I discussed that I needed to see the Pascagoula River. Sparling was on the prepared, calling up her kayaking group, the Pascagoula Paradise Paddlers. By that night, she’d organized for me to have a day on the river with two of her buddies, brothers Eric and Brian Richards.

With them that subsequent day, I discovered to say bah’ou as an alternative of bye-you, and that wooden handled with brackish water will stand up to a storm higher than something you should buy at Dwelling Depot. Cans of beer have been popped open and raised, and whereas one of many brothers prompt entertaining us along with his bluegrass-y tenor, all of us determined the sounds of pluff mud and Spanish moss swaying within the breeze was music sufficient.

Due to my harm, I’ve misplaced a lot: sensory tolerance, bodily stamina, psychological focus. However I’ll at all times have these episodic recollections from the journey that flip off my mind’s “concern mode” virtually mechanically. My journey to Mississippi, with all its serendipitous interactions, pulled me away from my home and journalistic routine, focusing my cognitive sources on all issues peripheral but important: my Lyft driver’s jokes; the diva vitality of Dolly and Frida; the kindness of strangers like Sparling and Pham. I got here to really feel that these happenstance social connections are what activate the reward circuits of our brains — particularly once we’re at our weakest. 

After my aneurysm, the docs and nurses requested me the identical query a number of occasions a day for weeks: “Are you able to inform us who you might be?” My reply modified each time, save for this one: “I’m a author who makes buddies on travels.” After mind surgical procedure, no matter you’re capable of recall turns into your new self. I used to be relearning. My therapist places it this fashion: you change into what you might have, not what you’ve misplaced. 

Ocean springs was my final cease on the journey. I stayed at Gulf Hills Resort & Resort, a 57-room waterfront property that was initially inbuilt 1927 and was being restored to its former glory, having been partially destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969 (and, after being rebuilt, destroyed a second time by a fireplace in 1974). It fell into neglect over the next a long time, however reopened within the fall of 2023, a number of weeks earlier than my go to. 

The brand new homeowners labored meticulously to revive a property the place Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and Jayne Mansfield as soon as swam, waterskied, and sundowned with cocktails in hand. As a part of the restoration course of, the crew reached out to former visitors and requested what they remembered. Most replied not with architectural particulars, however interactions. There was a teen, now a retiree, who’d frolicked with a younger Elvis, who cherished staying in Villa 9 within the early Fifties. It’s tales like this that Condrey and the crew used to reclaim what the property had.

On the close by Bozo’s Too, I met up with my pricey pal Rénard’s household for lunch. Though he now lives in Charleston, Rénard had organized for me to fulfill up along with his mom, sister, and niece, who dwell close by. The three of us shared a plate of hush puppies and chatted about Rénard’s daughter, who’s finest buddies with mine. We swiped by way of images of this era of Southern ladies of shade, who’re so very a lot merchandise of the coasts that raised them, in addition to their moms’ immigrant heritage. 

Simply as I had in the beginning of my journey, I used to be once more plotting a return with my woman to the pristine white sands and full embrace of the Mississippi Gulf. In the present day, that want resurfaces. However journey is more durable now. There are assistive devices to convey, logistical concerns to be made. My docs inform me to set small targets, and to depend on different folks for assist after I want it. By the point this story goes to print, I’ll have outstretched an open hand many occasions, and acquired a lot care in return.

I’ll have, for inspiration, seemed up well-known mind aneurysm survivors and see what they’ve achieved. Sharon Stone graced the Saturday Night time Dwell stage once more. Emilia Clarke went full Targaryen within the collection finale of Recreation of Thrones. Joni Mitchell picked up her guitar and stored making music. 

As for me, I’m right here, remembering what coastal Mississippians taught me. I’m right here, about so as to add a interval to a sentence. I’m right here, writing once more. 

The place to Keep

Gulf Hills Resort & Resort

Beloved by celebrities within the Fifties, this 57-room waterfront property in Ocean Springs was lately restored and reopened.

Pearl Resort

This charming 59-key inn in Bay St. Louis has a complicated seafood restaurant, Thorny Oyster.

The place to Eat

Bozo’s Too

Excellent for a lunch cease in Pascagoula, this no-frills spot serves po’boys, steamers, and a loaded Bloody Mary with an oyster, shrimp, and crawfish garnish.

McElroy’s Harbor Home

A Gulf-side Biloxi restaurant with crab truffles, gumbo, fried clams, and extra.

Mockingbird Cafe

This Bay St. Louis establishment serves Southern brunch classics like biscuits and gravy, plus sandwiches, salads, and pastries.

What to Do

Gulf Islands Nationwide Seashore 

Stretching 160 miles between Florida and Mississippi, this nationwide park website protects barrier islands, marshes, and wildlife. 

Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Artwork

Frank Gehry designed this establishment, which focuses on Mississippi ceramist George Ohr and different regional potters.

Pascagoula River Audubon Middle 

Get out on the water with a kayak or paddleboat rental to search for chook species like magnolia warblers and brown pelicans at this middle.

A model of this story first appeared within the February 2025 difficulty of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Let It Wash Over You.”