To most people, a waterlogged, sun-faded high school ID card might look like little more than discarded trash washed up on the shoreline. But for Catherine Hamel, a longtime resident of coastal Mississippi and a member of John Carroll High School’s Class of 1973, the discovery of her 55-year-old student ID was nothing short of extraordinary.
The ID card, weathered by time and the elements, was recently found on a barrier island beach in Mississippi, nestled among driftwood and debris. Its condition was a testament to the two decades it had endured since Hurricane Katrina, the storm that reshaped lives, landscapes, and memories across the Gulf Coast in 2005. For Hamel, who lost everything in the hurricane, this unexpected return of such a small token carried profound emotional weight.
“I was so tickled when she texted me the other day and said that she had found this,” Hamel recalled with awe. “I was floored. I said, ‘It’s been 20 years since Katrina.’ That just blows my mind. And I said, ‘You don’t know what this means to me. I honestly lost everything. I was one of these ones that came back to a slab.’”
Hamel’s story is not unique in the sense of loss—thousands of Gulf Coast residents faced devastation in the aftermath of Katrina. What makes it remarkable is the way a single small object, thought to be gone forever, managed to resurface nearly two decades later. For Hamel, the ID card is not just a piece of plastic; it’s a fragment of her past, a tangible link to her youth, her education, and the life she had before the storm swept it all away.
The friend who discovered the ID understood its significance and quickly reached out to return it. The moment Hamel saw her younger self smiling back from that worn card, she was overcome with emotion. Memories of high school days, long-lost belongings, and the sense of identity that Katrina had stripped away all came flooding back.
“It may not seem like much to anyone else,” Hamel said, “but when you’ve lost everything, finding even the smallest piece of your past feels like a gift. It’s like getting back a part of yourself you thought was gone forever.”
Stories like Hamel’s remind us of the enduring power of memory and the resilience of the human spirit. While Hurricane Katrina left behind destruction and grief, it also forged deep bonds among survivors and underscored the value of the things—both big and small—that shape our lives.
For Hamel, the rediscovered ID card will be cherished not for its material worth, but for the history it represents. After 20 years, a piece of her life washed back to shore, carrying with it not just memories of loss, but also a reminder of survival, endurance, and the unexpected ways the past finds its way home.
