At the Oso Landslide Memorial is a sculpture of 19 mailboxes commemorating the Steelhead neighborhood wiped out in the slide.
Survivors and their loved ones gathered under a tent. A lone bell rang, as the South County Fire Department Honor Guard read the names of the 43 victims.
At 10:37 on the morning of March 22, the once forested hillside above Oso collapsed without warning in a massive landslide, destroying the Steelhead neighborhood.
“This is our community embrace,” said survivor Gail Thompson. She and her husband had a home here.
“My husband and I lived on Steelhead Drive for 10 years and we left 10 minutes before the slide happened. Waved at our neighbors as we went out, not realizing that we would never see them again.
She paused with emotion when she remembered the last time she saw one of their neighbors.
“Our other neighbor who we’d see every morning when we walk was coming back into Steelhead drive as we was leaving for town and…”
The community is still raising money for a more permanent, even more fitting memorial.
Gail Thompson will be back here next year, and every year.
“At the same time at the same place for the same purpose to grieve those that we have lost and to grief with those who are still healing from their loss,” she said.