By Bill Aceto, REALTOR
We didn’t post to our usual column High Country Real Estate in High Country Press Online last week.
What could we say?
We’ve heard and seen the same words over and over in the past two weeks. Devastating. Catastrophic. Loss. Heartbroken.
Psalm 31:9 keeps running through my mind: Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief.
And in this distress, this sorrow, this grief, there are no new words to be found sufficient to address the devastation, the catastrophe, the loss, the heartbreak of what our communities and neighbors are going through.
Someone once told me weddings, funerals and crises bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. In this crisis, I have to say, at least so far, they were wrong.
I have seen nothing but the best.
Neighbors helping neighbors. Strangers helping strangers. Everyone reaching out, lifting up, helping where they can; wanting, desperately, to do more. People cutting down trees, working with the food bank, bringing groceries to the stranded, checking on neighbors, working with local ministries or countless gestures of love and service. Some efforts have been large, some seemingly small, but all heroic.
Everyday heroes, everywhere you look. A reminder that the flip side of grief is love. And where there is love there is hope.
This recovery is going to be a long road. And, sadly, there are some things that we will never recover. But we’re here, we’re together and together, we’ll make it through.
Next week we’ll be back with a more “normal” High Country Real Estate column. We’ll talk about stats for September. But we couldn’t move toward normalcy without acknowledging how much we lost normal two weeks ago and to state very publicly how much we love our communities and how hard we will fight to help them recover.
One of the top agent at Blue Ridge Realty & Investments, Cindy Giarrusso, emailed me to express gratitude for the health and safety of those she loved and tell me about the ways she and her family were helping out in the community. She added this, “Hard to get back into work mode and I’m not sure how to move forward. Our spirits are crushed and so much of what we love is destroyed. I love posting on social media, sales, updates and new listings but I just don’t know how people will take that. Who wants to celebrate a closing, who cares what the market is doing and should I go ahead and list new listings? That would be inviting people up here while everyone should stay away for now. Just so many unknowns and I am praying God will lead me to do what’s best. My heart is breaking for everyone and I just wish there was so much more I could do. God will show me the way, I know He will.”
As do we all.
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