I have 4 and a wake up (4 full days then one more night), then I fly home to Austin. Once I get there, the two weeks I have spent on assignment with the Red Cross will slowly begin to filter through the layers of my psyche, and I will experience the sights, sounds and feelings all over again. The horizonless devestation. The hundreds of family pets that live in kennels anxiously waiting for a beloved owner to claim them. The obituaries. "Beloved sister, husband, wife, son ... died of injuries sustained in the tornado." I am hopeful that those memories will fade. I would prefer that when I think of Joplin, I remember the local Red Cross volunteer, who after her home was utterly destroyed, showed up at headquarters, starting working and is still here. I want to remember the hundreds of law enforcement officers and firefighters who came from all over four states to help keep vulnerable people safe. I know that my memory of the many, hundreds even, of people I saw every day who in spite of whatever level of damage they suffered, were kind, generous and eager to help, will never fade.
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