--- title: ‘Duty’ by Natasha Trethewey description: When he tells the story now he’s at the center of it, everyone else in the house... 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=fa14caf1-8a33-444c-b8e4-3b0fbbc93bbc&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Natasha Trethewey](https://time.com/author/natasha-trethewey/) ## Natasha Trethewey Jul 26, 2018 10:42 AM UTC  Waterfront area of Mobile is covered by water caused by high tides from hurricane Camille. Mobile did not suffer any substantial wind damage. Waterfront area of Mobile is covered by water caused by high tides from hurricane Camille. Mobile did not suffer any substantial wind damage. Bettmann/Getty Images by [Natasha Trethewey](https://time.com/author/natasha-trethewey/) ## Natasha Trethewey Jul 26, 2018 10:42 AM UTC When he tells the story now he’s at the center of it, everyone else in the house falling into the backdrop– my mother, grandmother, an uncle, all dead now–props in our story: father and daughter caught in memory’s half-light. I’m too young to recall it, so his story becomes the story: 1969, Hurricane Camille bearing down, the old house shuddering as if it will collapse. Rain pours into every room and he has to keep moving, keep me out of harm’s way– a father’s first duty: to protect. And so, in the story, he does: I am small in his arms, perhaps even sleeping. Water is rising around us and there is no higher place he can take me than this, memory forged in the storm’s eye: a girl clinging to her father. What can I do but this? Let him tell it again and again as if it’s always been only us, and that, when it mattered, he was the one who saved me. _Trethewey, a Mississippi native, is a two-time U.S. poet laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Her new collection, Monument, will be published in November_ _This story is part of TIME’s August 6 special issue on the American South. 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