Greensburg 1 year later

It was the first time we had been back to Greensburg, and the absence of familiar landmarks was disorienting. Greensburg was the place where Rich and I developed our friendship. We went on Kwick-shop dates sharing bad coffee and a bag of Reeces Pieces.

Our daughter Rina had played at the Big Well Park, and much of my pantry-stocking was done at WB's Bulk Food Store. All of those things are gone now, or are drastically changed. But the biggest reminder of the devastation, and the greatest testimony to life pressing on in the midst of suffering were the trees. Naked trees that had been stripped of branches and leaves. Precious trees that had been nursed and cared for in the middle of the Kansas Prairie. Proud trees that, in spite of their assault, were shooting out tiny branches like fur, struggling to survive.

The people of Greensburg are like their trees. They have been stripped bare. No homes, no clothes, no possessions. They lost all that they had cared for and built up. A year ago they appeared to have lost both their past and their future. But today, like their trees, they are sending out shoots. They are branching out. They are pressing forward with life. They will rebuild. They will go on. The scars of that aweful day one year ago will remain, but those scars testify to the triumph of life over hardship.

The Kansas State Motto is "Ad Astra Per Aspera," To the Stars through Difficulties. The lives of those living in Greensburg are a testimony to the reality of that theme for all the world to see.