Rachel Brougham: Gaylord is more than a place. Gaylord is home.
I knew something was wrong just from my husband’s voice.
“What do you mean? What are you talking about,” he said into the phone that Friday afternoon.
A tornado had hit his hometown of Gaylord, Michigan. His brother was calling to tell him their mom and dad were OK, but their house had been hit. The tornado went right over their in-town neighborhood. The house behind them was rocked off its foundation. The garage next door was gone. Roofs were blown away, windows knocked out, homes were destroyed. The powerful winds had wiped out all the large trees in the yard.
The neighborhood looked like a war zone. Yet somehow Mom and Dad were OK.
It’s hard to see photos of places you once visited, now gone. There’s a certain kind of numbness you feel when you hear people say they’ve lost everything. When you look at the damage and destruction left behind by that powerful storm, it’s hard to know where and how a town can even start to rebuild.
Yet somehow, it does.
Mr. Rogers once said he was often comforted by something his mother would say during tough times. “Look for the helpers. You can always find people who are helping.”
And there they were — people with food and water. Volunteers with chainsaws and plywood, hammers and nails. Businesses taking people in who had nowhere to go and giving out food to feed their neighbors. Workers from around the state coming to do whatever was needed to help a community rise again.
More: Rachel Brougham: The words we use matter
More: Rachel Brougham: Do something good without doing anything at all
Subscribe: Get unlimited access to our local coverage
This is why people chose to live in small towns like Gaylord, where neighbors know one another and people aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and help with whatever is needed. It’s why my husband’s parents and brother and sister and their families still call Gaylord home. It’s why so many grow up here and leave for college or work, but somehow make their way back.
“Gaylord Strong,” they say.
I told my husband that Gaylord will look different next time we visit. Places he frequented in his youth may no longer exist. However, a community is more than its places. A community is its people. And the people of Gaylord are strong. They look out for one another.
Once all the debris is cleared up, once homes and buildings start to rise again, once businesses flip that Open for Business sign back around, that’s how you know Gaylord is more than just a place. For the people who live here, Gaylord is home.
— Rachel Brougham is the former assistant editor of the Petoskey News-Review. You can email her at racheldbrougham@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Rachel Brougham: Gaylord is more than a place. Gaylord is home.
