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NATCHEZ — Jennifer Kirk was sipping on a cup of coffee on her front porch at 108 St. Charles Avenue, close to where the Dart landed Friday morning.

A Vidalia native, Kirk has lived in the Miss-Lou region her entire life. Recently, she and her husband Adam Kirk sold their home, The Beaumont, on Main Street to move to Tennessee. However, their daughter, who will be a freshman in the fall, asked them to let her finish high school in Natchez. They agreed and found a home to rent on St. Charles.

“We sold our house when the big boom of real estate was coming,” Kirk said. “We were blessed to find this. There are not many places to rent right now because of the real estate boom in Natchez. It was so close to Beaumont, we were able to walk our dog over here when we moved.”

They have lived in the home on St. Charles for a month. In the first week they moved there, three people showed up from Atlanta and claimed a gentleman died on the steps of the house. She said they claimed the man haunted the home.

“They called him ‘Pap’ and told me that he likes bourbon and music, and I thought ‘he arrived at the right house.’ It was different,” Kirk said. “I’m eager to find out if he is here. I heard footsteps upstairs one day. No one was here but me. It could have been, but I do not know.”

St. Charles is a quiet street with friendly neighbors, she said. The house is now filled with pottery and artwork. Plants and furniture cover the front porch.

“I killed half my plants when we moved here, so this is a fraction of what I had,” Kirk said. “I forgot there was no way to water the plants here until we got the water turned on.”

A stay-at-home mom, she spends her days outside relaxing and taking care of her plants. Six cats and one dog keep her company. They ended up with six cats because “If my children find a cat, we have to keep it,” she said.

She has four children, Gabe Kirk, Ethan Stroud, Olivia Dossett and Isabella Kirk. Her husband is retired from law enforcement and works as a Site Safety and Health Officer for Nuclear Safety and the Corps of Engineers. He is also a survival instructor.

Together, Adam and Jennifer love to camp and hike. Recently they bought kayaks to go fishing. She said they plan to take them out to Natchez State Park.

“We normally go to the Smokies in Tennessee, or we will go to Virginia in the Pennington Gap,” Kirk said. “We travel to go hiking because we have grown up here. We try to find a new place to go anytime we have a long weekend. We enjoy nature, the flowers and the wildlife. I enjoy escaping the everyday humdrum. You get to see God’s beauty when you are out in nature.”

On her front porch are four or five fishing poles with tackle on the lines. If she is fishing in Tennessee, she likes to fish for trout, but if she is in the Miss-Lou, she would fish for white perch. Jigs are her favorite tackle to use in white perch fishing, she said.

“My father was a captain on the river, and when he was not on the boat, he was taking us fishing. It is where my love of fishing comes from,” Kirk said. “Anytime we were on the water, we were having fun.”

Taking care of her family is her full-time job, she said.

“I have always put my family in the limelight,” Kirk said. “I have always wanted them to be happy. My family is what I do, and I love it. If they are happy and living their dreams, then I’m happy to sit and watch them. If they are happy, I’m happy.”