Today, after my son’s trumpet lessons, our travels took us about fifty miles east to Wilson, North Carolina.

On April 16, 2011, when a series of storms swept through the southeastern United States, one of those storms produced a tornado that touched down in Wilson and caused damage to several businesses. Boo-Boo the ever intrepid and curious amigurumi tiger wanted to see what had happened.

When we arrived in Wilson, our first stop was the Cook-Out® restaurant, located across the street with a good view of where the tornado of the previous week had formed. My son and I each got a Cook-Out Tray, while Boo-Boo grabbed a table outside:

and enjoyed the view and a soda:

After lunch, we drove around town to view some of the damage. While clearly a lot of work had been done to clear out the debris and clean up the damage, this tree which had been whole before the storm appeared to have had something slice right through it:

The people and communities that suffered damage and losses in the wake of last week’s storms will recover with time, and like the tree in which Boo-Boo sits, many of them will never be quite the same. But my hope is that the people and communities affected find a way to renew themselves and persist.