Opinion : 2016: The year in which we will go on, and remember

The last sunset of 2015, a very difficult year for many, but also brings hope for a bright 2016.

This is the time of year we newspeople like to look back on the past 12 months and remind you of all the awesome stories we wrote in the previous year.

Despite what we say as we introduce these stories, we are not all that interested in telling you what we think were the Top 10 most important, most significant stories of the past year. We simply need to fill our pages, and hardly anything newsworthy happens during the last couple weeks of December.

Also: If we can include in those year-in-review stories some implied bragging about how awesome a news source we are, then well we have accomplished two important goals with one project.

By the way, in case you wonder: We had more than 5.5 million stories read throughout the year 2015, an average of around 15,000 per day. Vinton Today has more than 3,900 followers on Facebook and more who receive a daily email telling them what stories are new each day.

I’d love to give you a list of stories read by thousands throughout our area (and beyond) that were only available on Vinton Today, but that would be obvious bragging and we number ourselves among those journalists who try to keep our self-aggrandizement more subtle.

This is not to criticize those who are doing “Year in Review” stories; I have done them almost every year.

It is usually fun to look back through the archives and remember stories we wrote – many of which we had forgotten about.

But not this year.

This year, there’s no need to remind you what 2015 was like.

You see it in the empty chairs in your house, or your classroom.

You feel it in the melancholy moments of the holiday season.

You share it in photographs, on social media and in memorials.

The year we left behind broke our hearts. Our community barely had time to recover from one tragedy when another one filled headlines.

I am sure many of you paused over the holidays to remember those we lost way too soon this year. And as we enter the New Year, their memories will become part of who we are, and what we do – and why.

For me, personally, 2015 was a good year. We set new milestones for our Vinton Today web site. We welcomed new granddaughters and became friends with the one born last December. We accomplished some of our financial goals: Refinancing the house, replacing the self-destructive Buick, updating our computers.

Even better: Sharing the awful news, as tough as it was, led to some new friendships with amazing, inspiring people.

For those of you who felt the pain the most, I can’t promise anything or predict the future, but I can tell you this: Awesome things often follow the awful ones.

For me, 2002 was like our community’s 2015. In February I seriously injured my knee (in a snowball fight with my sons) and was unable to walk without a limp for over a year. An orthopedic surgeon scheduled an operation without guarantees. On Sept. 27, the day of the scheduled operation, our family had been in the hospital the past two weeks as my mom lay dying. She died two days after my birthday. Exactly three weeks later, my grandfather died in a car accident, here in Benton County.

The next few months were a blinding haze of grief, confusion and doubt. 

But dealing with all of that made me realize it was time for a change -- a change I had been considering for a while. 

Within six months, we had moved to Benton County, where I began working on the place that is now our home, just over the hill from the house where Grandpa Paul had lived for decades.

As I walked throughout my grandfather’s land, I could almost hear his voice. He was saying to me: “If you love me, live. Do what you love. Carry on with the lessons I tried to teach you.”

So, I did.

I think many of you have heard, in your souls, similar words from those you have lost in 2015.

And you, in your hearts, have determined to do as I did in 2003.

In the middle of my awful year, my favorite baseball team mourned the death of its long-time announcer Jack Buck, and then a few days later, tragically lost one of its players to an unknown medical condition.

Stunned with grief, St. Louis Cardinals General Manager Walt Jocketty explained what the team would do next, and why:

''It's going to be tough to play for a while. We all have a job to do and will try to go on. That is what Darryl Kile would have wanted us to do.''

The  Cardinals went on, and made the playoffs.

You too, will go on. You too, will see success.

It’s what you do. It’s what your loved one would have wanted.

Amid the pain and between the heartaches, many great things happened to our neighbors in 2015, and we will continue to write about those accomplishments, surprising successes, and unique triumphs – along with what I hope are very rare cases of bad news.

We will tell the stories as they happen. We will make new friends and learn new lessons.

And, we will go on.

It’s what we do.