The Frontlines // COVID-19

Like most communities across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic, the former community of Grand Bayou has come together to help fight the novel virus.

From descendants fighting on the front lines as healthcare workers to those praying nightly together for them and the world, the tight-knit community that started in Grand Bayou has come together for this common cause.

One of the ways they keep in touch is through social media, specifically a Rousseau Family Facebook group. Angela Diez, a Rousseau family member, posted on Facebook a list of the family healthcare professionals on the frontlines on the fight against the coronavirus. Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of this Grand Bayou family make up a long list of warriors the family prays for.

“O Holy Spirit, we thank you for the advancements that have led to improving the health of so many,” a prayer posted with the names reads. “We beg you to inspire new breakthroughs in overcoming the coronavirus and all serious flu viruses. Protect, we pray, health care professionals from the illnesses they are treating, and make them instruments of your healing. Amen.”

Jessica Rousseau Baye, a Grand Bayou native, says one thing everyone carried with them when they left Grand Bayou was faith.

“Everyone had strong faith,” Baye says. “I guess they just taught us how to be compassionate.”

Another thing that remains consistent with the people of Grand Bayou is their nostalgia for the past. Some of their fondest memories are the simplest ones where they were just together. Betty Crochet Breland, Grand Bayou native, says her favorite tradition is the Rousseau family reunions where all the cousins would get together and tell stories.

Now, however, in these unprecedented times, Breland says they are doing the best they can to stay connected.

“Even though I may need a little help with all the technology side, I know my family is just a phone call away,” she says.

Breland moved away from Grand Bayou at a young age but still says she always stayed connected with the people who taught her not just how to live, but how to enjoy life.

Breland says, “Nothing changed then and it won’t change now.”