Rebecca Campbell admits she doesn't know what her family will do today.

It was one year ago a tornado tore the roof off and ruined their Wynnwood Drive home in South Pymatuning Township.

No one looks forward to revisiting a disaster, whether it be through a calendar date, meetings with insurance adjusters or occasional reminders that former possessions have been destroyed by an event out of your control.

But Ms. Campbell said if her family does anything, it would be a celebration.

"We've definitely gotten stronger," Ms. Campbell said recently from her new home on Wynnwood Drive.

"There were four of us in the house when it hit and not one of us had a scratch on us. I would say it would be a celebration if it would be anything."

A week after the tornado struck, Ms. Campbell and her fiance, Tim Reeher, were fortunate a friend lent them a home on Winner Road in Hermitage, where they stayed until April when they moved back to the lot they had occupied for six years.

"We were thankful we had a place to stay," Ms. Campbell said, "but we were thankful to get out of there."

The new ranch home is equipped with a basement and a garage that the couple didn't have in the old house. Their two sons, Nick, a mechanic at Bissett Chevrolet, and Alex, a junior at Sharpsville High School, have rooms in the basement.

A wooden ramp in the garage leading up to the side door helps accommodate Tim Reeher, who gets around in a wheelchair.

Despite moving into a new home just six months after the tornado hit, the challenges of the past year have not completely subsided for Ms. Campbell or her family.

Tim was hospitalized at the beginning of October with cellulitis, and after a series of minor surgeries he is doing fine, but he is still away from Wynwood Drive recovering at a nearby hospital, Ms. Campbell said.

"It's been a long year after going through everything," said Ms. Campbell, who works at Carini's Restaurant in Reynolds.

"I'm not done yet. There's all kinds of boxes to unpack and all that."

Ms. Campbell had flashbacks of last Nov. 10 in July when a series of strong thunderstorms poured down on the area. On one occasion, she went downstairs to check the sump pump and then walked out back to see the branches of the property's lone remaining tree bent over and touching the ground.

"It got real still like that day and then the wind started blowing," Ms. Campbell said. "It was just like, 'Oh no, is this going to happen again?' ''

The July thunderstorms prompted a charitable impulse in Ms. Campbell that is now ingrained in her because of the help she received from her neighbors and local charities a year ago.

"When that happened in July, my thought was to immediately go out and help other people," Ms. Campbell said. "It gives you a new perspective. It really does. We were so fortunate."

After losing their home and rebuilding on the same location, Ms. Campbell and Reeher joined the Haywoods and the Scotts as families who were able to return to the exact spot where their lives were once turned upside down. Only financial and logistic hassles prevented the Muellers from doing the same, and even they are just a few blocks away.

This unanimous desire to move on with life exactly where it was derailed can mean only one thing: Life in Clark and South Pymatuning was good before the tornado.

When The Herald decided last November to chronicle the lives of local families, it wasn't with the pre-ordained knowledge or insightful expectation that those it selected would flourish to continue their lives as happily, and in the same communities, as they were one year ago on an unseasonably warm evening when the skies grew still and the wind picked up with enough force to permanently put these families in the basement.

But one year later, except for such inconveniences as dinged furniture and extended mortgages, life is once again good for these families of Clark and South Pymatuning.