Truth and Beauty near Bayou St. John

A newcomer to the Big Easy and Mid City meets a few of his neighbors including his landlady who turns out to be much more impactful than expected. She renovates houses herself and she's calm and collected, not to mention beautiful. She has a best friend up the street and also an old boyfriend very nearby. She seems to know everybody and Mid City knows her!...and the narrator is mostly glad to be witness to all this. But then tragedy happens and things change. For the narrator, they progress, largely because of her influence, her force.