Hello List Members, last Sunday, after mass, a friend of my father came up to him and told him that a couple whom they both knew were very sick in the hospital. My father knew the man from having played golf with him for many years up until a couple of years ago when my father started having problems with his legs and stopped playing. In yesterday morning's newspaper here, the September 7 edition of The Times-Picayune here in New Orleans, on the front page there was an article about this man, Mr. Ben Haney, Jr., and his wife, Mildred. They both died within hours of each other of the West Nile Virus. He was 89 and she was 83. Please remember both of them in your prayers and pray for the repose of their souls and pray for their loved ones left behind. They lived in the same area as my parents near Lake Pontchartrain. They used to like to walk along the lake and she liked to work in the garden and he liked golf. A few months ago, before the West Nile Virus began making news, my father had gotten very sick with something that was like the flu and it lasted for about 3 weeks it seemed until he finally got to a doctor and the doctor gave him antibiotics and got him well. We, at the time, had noticed some dead birds around their house. I had seen one myself one morning when I went to visit them. But this was just before the story about the West Nile Virus had become news. Louisiana has been hardest hit by it with now 11 deaths that are known to have been caused by it. Almost all of the deaths have been of elderly people above 70. It seems to make ordinary illnesses worse and that's what makes it deadly. A lot of people with no other problems seem to be able to get the virus and recover from it according to what I've been reading. There's also the newly discovered problem with some organ transplants that came from people who had been infected with the West Nile Virus. The early evening hours and the hours around daybreak seem to be the worst times for mosquitoes which someone has suggested really should be our state's bird instead of the pelican. Louisiana is in the path of two of the four great flyways of migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere so it is little wonder that the mosquitoes who pick up the virus from birds would hit Louisiana the hardest. The ordinary flu itself kills many more people every year than the West Nile Virus. During the flu pandemic of 1918, my father's sister, my aunt, Therese, contracted the flu while she was pregnant when she was helping my grandmother take care of her younger brothers who had the flew including my father and it killed her and the unborn child. So this is a reminder to take proper precautions. If you see standing water around your house, empty it if you can. If you can't put some Pine Sol in it to kill any mosquito larvae in it. I'm talking about things like large puddles and such. Not lakes or ponds. Let the authorities in your area worry about the larger bodies of water. When you go out walking or working in your garden put on some mosquito repellent and wear long sleeves and pants. John Craven New Orleans