The Haywoods were not home last Nov. 10 when a tornado reduced their South Pymatuning Township house on Wynnwood Drive to a shell of its former self. They stayed longer than expected at a friend's house to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime and a NASCAR race featuring driver Dale Blaney.

One year after the Steelers battle ended in a tie, the Haywoods are nestled into a newly rebuilt house that replaced the old. With the help of family, friends, and most of all, a supportive community, they have turned a devastating loss into a model for how to emerge victorious from a disaster.

"It's not a large community here," Diane Haywood said, "but people sure do pull together.

"We have made some new lifelong friendships. I guess you can't live your life staying busy. You know, make time. Make time for sharing yourself with other people."

A phone call from a neighbor a year ago alerted them that something had gone terribly wrong with their home, and after they returned to Wynnwood Drive to find the battered structure, people they didn't even know began showing up to help them through the ordeal.

Red Cross workers from the Pittsburgh area, composed of retirees who donate their time and energy to helping others, brought more than enough food in the days that followed.

"You gain a lot of weight," David Haywood half-joked of the charity. "They make you eat."

A group of young men from the Church of the Gentle Shepherd, Hermitage, arrived in a van to help clean up the entire yard. Mrs. Haywood also vividly remembers a woman from the local Salvation Army who comforted and supported her when she put her name on a list to receive aid.

"I admire anybody who does volunteer work like she does," she said. "I wish I knew who half of them were now because they were so hopeful."

The Haywoods began the road back to living on Wynnwood Drive by staying with Mrs. Haywood's mother in Hermitage. But that made it difficult to shuffle their two children, Sean, 13, and Kayla, 7, to basketball practices and Girl Scout meetings in Sharpsville.

After two weeks, they moved to Georgetown Apartments in Sharpsville; for seven months they lived out of plastic containers and slept on air mattresses. They moved into their new home June 16, thanks in large part to the efforts of their family.

Mrs. Haywood's sister-in-law works for an insurance company in Pittsburgh, and after an agent presented the family with a check the morning after the disaster, her sisters helped her file the proper insurance forms.

Her brother-in-law is a contractor and once the couple learned they could not rebuild on the remaining structure, he moved the building process along. Within a month, and before severe cold weather hit, the foundation for a new home was already in place.

"We were so fortunate we have family and friends that were a huge help," Mrs. Haywood said.

The Haywoods paid off the remaining five years on their old mortgage and quickly got a new one for 15 years.

But extended financial commitments and a change of scenery around the house are not the only after-effects of the tornado.

Haywood, who used to harbor through thunderstorms and other severe weather upstairs, now hunkers in the basement with his family at the first sign of Mother Nature brewing trouble. Mrs. Haywood still has moments at home when she expects to be able to retrieve an object she forgot was destroyed.

But the Haywoods have a greater appreciation for what they didn't lose last year, and what they realized they had all along.

"Life is precious and possessions really don't mean anything," Mrs. Haywood said. "Our outlook is different. It really is."

"You look more toward family and friends now," Haywood said.

The Haywoods cannot say enough about all of the help they received in the wake of last year's tornado, but they encourage others to particularly support the Salvation Army and Red Cross, especially with the holidays coming up.

"It's really something how they do so much for people and not only in a time of disaster," Haywood said. "These people are here everyday putting hours and hours in."