This is one tough little cookie, and it’s fitting that she has her feet firmly planted in the yard of the late, great Carmella Noto. Their names even rhyme. Arabella and Carmella. Bella and Mella. Forgive me for being nostalgic and weepy about Carmella, our octogenarian muse who passed last March. Now my niece and her husband live in Carmella’s house. There are combined family crawfish boils and kids birthdays, and soon summer will bring water slides and outdoor fish fries. All will be held in Carmella’s massive back yard. At dusk, after beers and a smoke, I find myself talking with the ghost of Carmella. Not a chatty-chat-chat talk, but a feeling that she is very near to us. I whisper her name. Jokingly, she says “Tug on the shower curtain, Daneeta.” Then she is gone. But we have Bella, and she will grow strong in Carmella’s yard.
