By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter
EAST BATON ROUGE — Mary Cupit, 81, awoke to banging on her bedroom window in East Baton Rouge during the early hours of Aug. 14 as the new neighbor next door, Chad Tyrone, 24, knocked frantically to warn her about the rising water.
By the time Mary roused her caregiver—her deaf brother Donald Cupit, 73—he had time only to throw on some clothes and grab his wallet and keys before helping his sister into a waiting car filled with neighbors they barely knew. The drive to safety took them to Tyrone’s grandmother’s house where the Cupits were welcomed as family.
Five weeks earlier racial tensions had torn Baton Rouge apart. But that Sunday race did not matter.
Though his first efforts to rouse his neighbor had failed, Tyrone, a Christian and an African-American, could not leave his neighbors behind.
“He told me, ‘Mama, I’ve got to try one more time,’” his mother Theora Tyrone recounted of her son’s insistence as water rose in the street. “He’s always had a big heart.”
Having lived only two months in the neighborhood near I-12 and Airline Hwy in Baton Rouge, Tyrone had spoken to Mary Cupit only briefly prior to the flood when he offered to mow the Cupits’ lawn. He learned later of his neighbor’s serious health issues and that no other family members live nearby.
“That day was my first time to meet Donald,” Chad Tyrone said. “I didn’t know if anybody [else] would come through the water to get them.”
Once safe from the rising water, Donald Cupit video-phoned long-time friends A. J. and Dawn Melendez, who are members of CrossPoint Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. When Dawn Melendez met Tyrone and his mother, she understood why the new neighbors had gone the extra mile.
“We didn’t know each other, but we bonded because we know Christ,” Dawn Melendez said. “We knew immediately.”
Five days after the flood, Cupit told of stepping into his home for the first time after the water receded. Dawn Melendez, a nationally certified deaf interpreter and certified teacher for the deaf, interpreted.
“I felt crushed. My heart was so sad,” Cupit said. “All of my years of life I’ve never seen anything like this happen. It was so unexpected.”
Mary Cupit’s declining health had forced her to move into her brother’s home months before the storm. As a result, boxes of items and furniture from two households were lost, carried to the trash for fear of contamination.
“I know I have to accept it, that if I keep anything my sister will get sick or I’ll get sick,” Cupit said. “The bad part is losing your memories.”
An avid bowler, Cupit lost his prized possessions—12 bowling balls from his 40-year love of bowling. “The balance was different,” Cupit said.
As friends and teams of Southern Baptist volunteers from New Orleans’ Canal Street and Gretna Covenant Churches arrived to help with clean up, Cupit made sure his sister was not there to see it.
“She would be heartbroken,” Cupit said, adding that he told her, “Your job, sister, is to pray.”
Cupit said his faith in God is helping him to accept what he knows he must and pointed to God’s providence.
“I do believe God is helping me. He sent me the warning,” Cupit said. “I would never have known if my neighbor had not come and warned me.”
Melendez said her friends are believers and are depending on the Lord, but at the moment are “overwhelmed.” The Cupits are staying in the Melendez home in the short term to allow Dawn to help with insurance notifications and other details.
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Melendez said.
Volunteers are needed for additional clean-up and rebuilding. Please contact Dawn Melendez, 225-266-2395, if you can help.
