What can I say? Thank you! Thank you for allowing me into your world & letting me share a part of mine. I am deeply touched by the overwhelming response that each one of you has graciously expressed, through sharing your precious stories with me. It gives me such a light of hope & encouragement, to know that I am not alone in this struggle. We are not alone in this battle, we are in this fight together. Our memorable town, our remarkable lives, have desperately reached the point of no return. No going back, we have boldly stood & stated a NO to defeat! We have started the difficult process of back breaking clearing, tedious cleaning & unending debris removal. It’s not very pretty, just heartbreaking to watch, our downtrodden town constantly changing on a daily basis. Everyday, as I cautiously drive through the many vacant lots, down the darkened tattered streets, I sense the void of emptiness. I feel the stabbing pains of labor as we go through this transitional stage of rebuilding. I know this all too well. I have been living it as I grieve for each one of you, because I know it’s not only my loss, it’s not just your loss, but it’s our loss. It’s not easy to watch the center of our lives, the heart of our homes & all that we once had, be carefully fallen. So scrupulously scraped & everything reduced & compressed, to be tactfully hauled off to nowhere land. It hurts to see all we’ve worked for & owned, all our creative hard work, reduced to disfigured metal. Just crushed glass & molten ash. But it’s not the end, simply the beginning of a beautiful mess, that will clear the way for a better & brighter tomorrow. It will prepare the freshly filled ground, to lay the building foundation for a new home, a new life, a new town. When I see all the hard hat workers, sign yielding street stoppers, & cleat shod tree climbers; I try to hold back the tears as I crack a smile, wave & say, “thank you for your service”. My mind is silently screaming, my heart is constantly breaking, but somehow deep inside… a voice keeps saying; “Be strong & courageous, you are not alone”. I might be slightly broken, we may be quietly hurting, but that’s okay. We’ll be alright because we’re all doing this together, for a better cause & the greater good of tomorrow. I’m leaving a light on, for “Our Town”.
