Hero

The Friday before last, I was in New Orleans. The beginning of Mardi Gras weekend. Parades had been meandering through the streets of the city since the Twelfth Nite and the weekend promised more as the city headed into the final festive weekend before the Fat Tuesday blow out.

But there was one parade that should not have happened.

New Orleans motorcycle police officers saluted as bagpipe player who lead the funeral procession for police office Nicola Cotton. The hearse passed the 6th District police station where the officer volunteered to serve after graduating from police academy two years earlier.

Young Cotton grew up there. She knew the neighborhood and often peeled small bills from her pocket to give to the homeless. This was where she worked, where she lived and where she died when one homeless man with a mental illness took her life.

To the city, Nicola Cotton was a hero. She was a hero whose parade came too soon.