The plans had been set for months: Dr. Roquell E. Wyche would finally take her son, Jaxon, to New Orleans, joining nearly 40 members of her husband’s family for their annual celebration of Mardi Gras.
Then, early on New Year’s Day, a terrorist rammed his pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the city’s French Quarter, killing 14 people. Weeks later, a helicopter collided with a plane that was about to land in Washington, near her home, killing everyone on board.
All of it gave Dr. Wyche pause. But she and Jaxon, 11, came anyway.
“It’s been the best time of our lives,” she said on Sunday, watching as her son raced to catch a string of beads and her relatives joked with each other along a parade route. “Just to be able to leave and be free for a second.”
There was never any question that Carnival, that burst of indulgence and celebration before the sacrifice and contemplation of Lent, would go forward in New Orleans. But with the horror of the truck attack still fresh, some revelers felt at least a hint of trepidation as they ventured into the streets ahead of Fat Tuesday.
