The death of her mother — a heart attack, sudden — took Selarstean Mitchell by surprise. Mitchell, who spoke with her mother every day, had called her on a Saturday morning, nothing out of the ordinary. By Saturday afternoon, her mother was in the hospital.
The oldest of six siblings, Mitchell spent the next week planning the funeral, which was scheduled for Aug. 27, 2005, the following Saturday morning. Mitchell and her family decided to hold the service in Columbia, Mississippi, her mother’s hometown, and return to New Orleans for a repast in the afternoon.
She put together a program, wrote an obituary and drove out to Mississippi to make arrangements for the burial site. The logistics kept her so busy that she didn’t even realize a storm was coming…