Where were you when Steve Gleason blocked that kick? I as with his family....

Twenty Years Later: The Blocked Punt, a Grocery Store Friendship, and the Night Hope Came Home

Twenty years ago this week, Steve Gleason blocked a punt in the Superdome, and a whole city found its voice again. Most people remember where they were that night. I remember exactly where I was, because I was sitting with his family.

Before he was a symbol of rebirth for New Orleans, Steve was one of my favorite customers at Whole Foods. He'd come through my line all the time, a laid-back, California-surfer-looking guy who was playing special teams for the Saints. He always bought a ridiculous amount of vegetable oil and joked that it powered his car. To this day I don't know if he was kidding. Every visit was laughs and good energy, and over the years we built a real friendship across that checkout counter.

Then Katrina came. At the time I was living with my mom and dad in Gentilly, near UNO. Our house sat up high, and it still took on about eleven feet of water. I lost everything.

Steve checked in on me afterward. When I told him what I'd been through, he did something I'll never forget. He offered me tickets and let me choose between the preseason games or the first real game back in the Dome. I picked the first game, and I brought Isaac with me.

On September 25, 2006, Isaac and I walked into a Superdome that had been a shelter of suffering just a year before, and we sat with Steve's family. When he broke through the line and blocked that punt, we were right there cheering for him. The building shook. For those few hours, I didn't think about what I'd lost. I just felt New Orleans coming back to life around me.

Steve will never fully know how much that gesture meant. It lifted me at my lowest point, and it stayed with me as I chased my dream of becoming the artist I am today. It reminded me that one kind act can carry someone through a season of loss, and that night gave our whole city the hope it needed so badly.

Life has a way of coming full circle. Years later, I found myself creating art with and for the Saints, something I couldn't have imagined back then. When I painted cleats for My Cause My Cleats, I got to see Steve again. I brought up that night, and he laughed. He remembered me. He remembered Isaac. After everything he has faced and fought since, he still remembered.

I don't have a single photo from that game. But I do have one when we reunited. 2006 was a different time for me, before everyone had a camera in their pocket. But I don't need one. That night is painted on my heart.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11). Even after the water took everything, there was a future and a hope waiting for me, and for one night in the Dome, I got to see it.

Thank you, Steve. No white flags.