I dreamt about a serial killer stalking me the whole night just before putting this issue to bed, but eventually dawn came and the nightmare released me from its clutches…
My colleague Stefan Goosen smelt smoke all weekend although there was no sign of a fire.
Nwabisa Pondoyi set out to ask people how they felt about the fires one year later and she says one word predominated their responses: fear.
For most people it is almost incomprehensible that a year has passed since fires took the Knysna as we knew it – exactly one year to the day, 7 June.
For many folk the fires were just the beginning of their troubles and sorrows, some which have had a happy ending and others not.
Many questions
In this issue we have tried to get answers for questions we have heard incessantly over the past year, such as "Where did all the donated money go?", "What has the municipality done to help her people?", "Where is the final fire report and what started the fire?" and "Why is the Knysna High School hostel still as it was when the fire gutted it?"
Some answers
These and many other answers are what they are – harder we cannot try to extract information. Make of them what you will and if you want, keep hammering for less grey and more tangible action.
In this paper we invited people to share stories of victory and hope and thank the many readers who did so.
Many stories
Tales like these in the face of such adversity should give us all hope.
Not everything is back to normal, but I think that we should face the fact that "normal" will never be what our town was before the fires.
And nor will many of us ever be the same again – those who lost homes, but also people who were just here during the fires and lived in what looked like Beirut for months afterwards absorbing others' pain.
Elaine King evacuating with a tub of cat's biscuits as the fire hit Upper Town. Photo: Mark Taylor
Slow healing
I think what we can take from the stories is that during a crisis of this magnitude, people help others. And the human spirit is a whole lot more robust than we think.
Nature is, with the help of devoted caregivers, slowly healing itself.
It would be plain shortsighted and wishful thinking to say that the progress made so far is satisfactory. It is an ongoing process of rebuilding not only components of the very infrastructure but also rebuilding lives that will continue.
More work to do
Reality is that it would be crazy to think that in one short year there would still not be work to do after the most severe disaster on the African continent in a century descended on us.
It is a cliche, but I don't know how else to express it: time heals, and we need to keep believing this.
The various commemorative gestures like the angel sculpture, the seedpod installation, the wall of remembrance and the rock commemoration day, just to mention some, are testament to courage and victory thus far.
To those who are still floundering, we wish for you what you need – and closure.
