[StBernard] (no subject)

[Westley Annis]

Wedding photo's mystery is solved
Arabi man sees self in newspaper story 
Thursday, October 05, 2006
By Kim Gritter
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

Phillip Harney Sr. says he's not much of a reader, but last weekend while
perusing the newspaper, the Arabi resident was so shocked by what he saw
that he couldn't put it down. 

Staring back at him from the Oct. 1 edition of The Times-Picayune was a
wedding photograph of Harney and his first wife from 1984. 

"When I looked at it, I just couldn't believe it," Harney said. "I thought,
'Why is my picture in the paper, especially this picture?' Then, once I read
the story, I pieced it all together." 

The picture of Harney, 42, and his ex-wife, Donna DeVaul, taken on their
wedding day in New York, ran with a story about a Chalmette couple's crusade
to reunite the photo with its owner. 

Marie and Clay Cosse found the photo Sept. 12 while cleaning in front of
their gutted home in the 200 block of Urquhart Street. 

Harney, who has worked for Chalmette Amusement Co. for more than 20 years,
said that shortly after he saw the photo, family and friends began calling
him to say they saw it, too. 

Harney said he immediately knew the 8-by-10-inch color photo had to belong
to his son, Phillip Harney Jr., who has been staying with a friend in a FEMA
trailer on Urquhart Street. 

"I called my son to tell him about the story and ask if he knew where his
picture was," Harney said. "He said, 'Yeah, Dad. It's in the trunk of my
car.' And I said, 'You better go check.' " 

Phillip Jr., 20, searched his car. The photo wasn't there. Until that moment
he hadn't even known it was lost. 

"I tore my car apart looking for it," he said. "If I had known it was lost,
I would have been looking for it already." Phillip Jr. eventually concluded
the photo must have fallen out of his trunk when he changed a flat tire in
early September. 

The Cosses, who lost many of their own belongings during Hurricane Katrina,
which swamped thousands of houses in St. Bernard Parish, are just happy to
be able to help someone else recoup one of theirs. 

"It was so exciting that it worked and that we were able to accomplish
this," said Marie Cosse, who lost one-third of the 45 family photo albums
she had before Katrina. 

Clay Cosse said he was confident they would find the owner of the picture,
but was surprised by how fast it all occurred. 

"I had a feeling that with the story running citywide that we would find the
owner and that it was just a matter of time, which turned out to be before
lunchtime," the same day it ran in the paper, he said. 

Clay Cosse said the story, which included his phone number, also produced
several calls from friends he and his wife hadn't spoken to since Katrina
who just wanted to say hello. 

After the shock of seeing his picture in the paper finally wore off, Phillip
Harney Sr. called Cosse. 

"I didn't know what to say when he answered," Harney said. "I just went,
'Yeah, I'm the guy in the photo.' " 

Harney and his son met with the Cosses at their Urquhart Street home
Wednesday to reclaim their photo. 

Phillip Jr. said he is grateful the Cosses made the effort to find him
because the photo is the only one he has from his parents' wedding. The
couple divorced in 1992. They also have a daughter, Samantha Harney, 17. 

Phillip Jr. also said this isn't his first brush with nearly losing the
photo. 

The first time was during Katrina when he evacuated to New York to stay with
family. The owners of the Arabi apartment complex where he had lived gutted
the building before he returned to the city. During his first post-Katrina
visit to his apartment, Phillip Jr. said he was shocked to see that the
photo was the only thing left and it was sitting right where he had left it,
virtually untouched, on a closet shelf. 

Phillip Jr. said now that he's getting the photo back a second time, he'll
be more careful. 

"I'm going to put it somewhere else but (not) in the car this time, and I'll
be looking for a nice frame this time," he said. 

. . . . . . . 

Kim Gritter can be reached at kgritter at timespicayune.com or 826-3792.