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Southeastern Louisiana author Trista Brazan comes to Franklin Library with inspirational tales of medical heartbreaks and what it means to be a family in the face of adversity.
Her book “The Claire Chronicles” will make you laugh, cry and fully grasp the power of familial fortitude.
Trista Brazan and her husband knew their lives were going to change the moment their daughter Claire took her first breath. What they didn’t anticipate was the spiraling medical journey that was to ensue, ensuring their daughter’s survival.
Born in May, 2014, Claire was diagnosed with a genetic disorder and half a heart. After receiving a successful heart transplant in 2015, Claire’s journey continues to be fraught with obstacles, but Brazan proves that the impossible is possible with family, chocolate, love and lots of faith.
“Meet the Author” and learn about their family’s journey at Alex P. Allain Library in Franklin Jan. 18 at 6 p.m.
For further information on this book event, please contact Franklin Library at 337-828-5364.

As the St Mary Parish Council convenes Wednesday, an agenda item that will reconsider the recent name change of a portion of Cypremont Road to Joseph “Tooney” Davis Drive is being carefully watched by his son, Trent Davis.
Davis said that his father was a visionary who brought many conveniences and opportunities for multi-ethnic residents living in the area.
He spoke of his late father’s accomplishments ranging from establishing waste and sewage lines as a St. Mary Parish councilman and St. Mary Parish Police juror to taking the lead in proposing street lights, 911 services, parks and the St. Mary Parish Civic Center.
Davis claims there were residents who went to the St. Mary Parish Council to try to change the name back to Cypremont Road and “they too are reaping the benefits of my dad’s hard work.”
Davis referred to an agenda item that will be considered at tonight’s St Mary Parish Council meeting, proposed by Councilman Paul Naquin “providing for the renaming of a portion of Joseph ‘Tooney’ Davis Drive.”
Davis pointed out that there would be little inconvenience to those accepting the name change, all residents’ house numbers would remain the same. The name change has already gone into effect, the part of the roadway being challenged would only affect a portion of Cypremont Road.
Among the list of Joseph “Tooney” Davis’ accomplishments are that he was the first African American hired at Cabot Corp in 1964, the first to serve on the Teche Electric Cooperative Board of Directors and the first to be elected to the St. Mary Parish Police Jury.
The council meets at 5:30 p.m. in public hearing and at 6 p.m. in regular session on the fifth floor of the St. Mary Parish Courthouse.

Franklin Rotary Club held a celebration Tuesday to commemorate 78 years of service in Franklin.
The festivities were hosted by the Forest Restaurant and sponsored by St. Mary Council on Aging.
Rotary District Governor Gary Lacombe and Assistant District Governor Danny Cavell attended the event along with former and current Rotarians and their families.
Dr. Thomas Kramer was honored with the Gold Star award for his 58 years of Rotary membership and commitment. He also presented the program for the evening, which was a history of Franklin Rotary as he remembered it.
He lamented a time as recent as 1980 when women were not permitted to attend Rotary meetings, and followed up with crediting women for what he called a “recent renaissance” in the club.
He recalled charter members and their various peccadillos and accomplishments, and drew attention to the club’s derived member descriptions based on meeting attendance.
He said that some members are known as “one-timers,” as they only attend on the day of their inauguration, and never again. He added that there were other members called, “RINOS,” because they were “Rotary In Name Only;” and he also said there are faithful members who attend regularly, and that most members who join and then lapse in attendance, usually tend to return to regularity.
Of members in particular, Kramer said, “We have never had a member of the Rotary that had a greater sense of humor than David Stiel.
“The most notorious thing, in my opinion, that David ever did was at every meeting he would surreptitiously put a knife, a fork, or a spoon in my back pocket. And I would not be aware of this until I got back to my office.
“When I had accumulated a place setting for twelve, I brought all the silver back to the Forest.
“In fact, the fork with which you eat tonight may well have been in my back pocket.”
Kramer went on to look back on the myriad types of programs he has attended throughout the years and the sundry fundraisers of the club, both successful and less than successful.
He spoke of one occasion being confounded when his sense of fashion was challenged by a guest speaker after Kramer had asked him whether or not beltless slacks were in style. He said that what had confounded him had been that the challenge had come after his being voted “best-dressed” the week before.
Kramer closed by saying, “In the 200 year history of this community, there has never been an organization that has made a greater civic contribution than the Rotary. We should be proud to be Rotarians.”

Looking at our local arrests column last week, you might have been puzzled by a couple of entries about people who were booked into jail.
We listed a man who was arrested on charges that included going 39 mph in a 20 mph zone in Berwick. Further down, there was a booking for a Patterson man arrested in Morgan City after a stop for speeding. A Morgan City man was booked in Franklin after being stopped for no inspection sticker and an expired license plate.
But those weren’t the only charges. Our alleged offenders were also booked for driving under suspension or driving without a license.
You might think what I once thought: Going to jail? For driving without a valid license?
What’s the matter? Too many empty beds at the jail? We’re supposed to be finding ways to keep nonviolent offenders out of jail.
I learned better.
A project in the 2000s, when I was working in Lafayette, required a deep dive into statistics maintained by the National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration. That agency maintains the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a series of databases that, if you have a pick-ax and one of those helmets with the little light in front, will tell you everything you want to know about auto crashes that kill people.
The specific target of this project was the impact of drunken driving going back to the mid-1990s in our coverage area, which at the time stretched from Evangeline Parish to St. Mary.
The DWI stats were bad enough. Close to half the fatalities on our roads were attributable to alcohol in one way or another.
But something else emerged, too.
Each year, somewhere between 8 percent and 12 percent of fatal crashes in that part of South Louisiana involved at least one driver whose license had been suspended or revoked. In a handful of cases, two drivers in a deadly crash were driving after a suspension or revocation.
That figures, you might think. Bad drivers a) get their licenses taken away and b) bad drivers get into crashes.
But Louisiana gives the justice system two tools for punishing drunken drivers and keeping them from offending again. The system can take away their licenses, or it can put them in jail.
Imprisonment is usually reserved for extreme cases, such as DWI crashes that kill people.
So the most common, day-in-and-date-out weapon judges have to protect us from the really dangerous drivers is taking away the driver’s license.
But if something like one fatal crash in 10 involves a suspended or revoked driver, the weapon isn’t as effective as we’d want it to be.
Other states have tried more drastic weapons. Some have some variation on the “scarlet letter” system. A method, usually a special license plate or sticker, marks a driver that patrol officers are allowed to pull over without any other infraction, just to make sure the driver isn’t impaired. Some states have tried immobilizing or even confiscating the vehicles of repeat DWI offenders or those who have tried to drive without a valid license.
Louisiana has laws allowing for suspension of repeat traffic offenders, but nothing like the point system other states employ.
To be sure, some combination of Louisiana law, law enforcement agencies, infrastructure improvements and safer vehicles has performed a minor miracle when it comes to making roads safer.
The number of people killed in highway crashes has fallen from 993 in 2007 to 752 in 2015, the last year for which Louisiana Highway Safety Commission has posted statistics. The number dipped as low at 677 in 2011.
But we can still count on alcohol being involved in something like 40 percent of fatal crashes. And the overall number of crashes is up from about 148,000 in 2010 to 168,000 in 2015.
So we still have some work to do when it comes to making our roads safer.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.