Eighteen months ago, Jim and Janice Hall were at a crossroads. Life had thrown some obstacles into their paths, and they were trying to figure out their next move. They were frequent visitors to New Orleans, where Jim Hall’s son lives and Janice Hall’s mother had honeymooned not once but twice.

“Something about that left me feeling I had a symbiosis for the place. Like we had some kind of destiny,” said Janice Hall, a native of Chicago.

In 2015, the couple had moved to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, from Palm Springs, California, where Janice Hall, an author, photographer, interior designer and competitive tennis player, had owned a series of art galleries. They continued to maintain a second home in Southern California.

One afternoon in 2023, they were headed back to the coast after a vis

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