Kip Logan

(Kip's daughter, wife and son pictured)

Jewelry shop owner David "Kip" Logan, 49, died 8/29/2005 during hurricane Katrina.

LAUREL, Miss. — Tuesday will be a difficult day for Deborah Logan and her two grown children. Ryan, 25, and Laura Ashley, 20.

It was a year ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, when Deborah Logan lost her husband, Kip, during Hurricane Katrina. The tree Kip Logan had worried about during the high winds and heavy rain crashed on the couple’s front porch, killing him and breaking her neck. It took Ryan Logan hours later, after cutting his way south with chain saws, telling his mom that her husband was dead before Deborah Logan could admit it to herself.

“I think I’ll drive up to Jackson Tuesday to spend time with Ryan,” said Deborah Logan. “I’m going to hang a black wreath on the door of the store with a note remembering Kip.”

Deborah Logan said the way she handles not having her soulmate of 25 years next to her has developed so she can survive.“I have my children and they are my reason for living,” said Logan at her home in Windermere. “I tried once to just stay home and grieve but that didn’t solve anything. I didn’t see any sense in doing that."

Logan now operates Kip’s Jewelers in Laurel. Her husband, whom she described as the outgoing sort of man everyone enjoyed being around, is no longer there. But Logan feels closest to her husband when she is inside the store.

“Everyone loved his honesty and integrity,” she said. “He used to say you can look into anyone’s eyes and see the truth. That is why he always was straight with people. That is why people trusted him.”

Deborah Logan can still see him in the store, throwing a football, of all things, to friends and workers.

“I have no idea where that came from, but he’d just start throwing a football in the store with all these glass displays and our life savings in jewelry all over the place,” Deborah Logan said smiling. “By keeping the store open, it somehow keeps the memory of Kip alive in my mind. It’s very hard to explain.”

Harder still is when an out-of-town customer, who hasn’t heard of the loss, comes into the store looking for Kip Logan. Deborah Logan must relive that horrible day on 12th Street in Laurel.

She can still hear the sound of the pine tree as it suddenly cracked and started falling toward the house. She can hear Kip yelling for her to run down the front porch away from the tree. She can feel his arm shoot out across her body, throwing her against the outside wall of the house, trying to get her out of harm’s way as the tree comes down on him. She remembers the peaceful expression on his face.

“I can remember being mad earlier at the storm because I had too much work to do and I couldn’t work with this storm raging,” Logan said. “What I didn’t realize at that time was the most important thing I had wasn’t the car in the driveway I thought was going to get damaged, but Kip, who was sitting in a chair watching the storm.”

Logan asked herself all the questions. Why did he have to die? What meaning does it have? How much more can she take?

“I couldn’t find the answers, so I just focus on the things I can control,” said Logan. “I watch after my children. I work at the store doing the best I can. I live my life.”

And she does something she hopes others will do as well, especially on Tuesday.

“I remember Kip,” she said quietly.

David Kip Logan 1956 - 2005