CLARKSVILLE, Ohio — As I walked along Main Street with the Village of Clarksville's mayor, Noni Wood, she told me about her small town in Clinton County.
"Our little village is, as you know, pretty tight-knit; we're real close," Wood said.
Our walk was only a couple of blocks long before we made it to the rubble left behind by a devastating house fire, not too far from the mayor's office.
"When I came by myself today, I felt like, this really did happen, pretty sad," Wood said.
Wood was not in town Tuesday, when a massive fire destroyed a home on W. Main Street, killing a mother and her five young children. The children's father was rushed to the hospital. Wood told me she was out of town at a funeral for a family member who had unexpectedly passed.
Watch to hear how Clarksville's mayor is honoring the lives lost in last week's fire:
The mayor described the moment a friend delivered the tragic news.
"I got a call from a friend here in town, and she said, 'Did you see there was a big fire in town?'" Wood said. "I was kind of bombarded with phone calls."
As we looked at the devastation left behind, she told me about the victims, identified by a family friend as Brooke Gordon and her children: Zayden, Hudson, Ashton, Bostyn and Tomlyn.
"I've seen the children out here playing a lot; you know, they are out here on their little [tricycles] and bikes, and mom's sitting on the porch. Dad, I've seen them get in cars and Dad putting the children in," Wood said.
Wood also honored the bravery of the men and women who rushed to the family's aid as the flames roared.
"Our firefighters, so brave," Wood said.
And now, as the days have passed, Wood told me what she and other village leaders have planned to honor the family.
"We'll have a memorial flag-lowering service on Tuesday. And we're gonna have a little service at our gym, and lower the flags for 30 days," Wood said.
That memorial will be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
A memorial has been growing outside the home since Wednesday afternoon. There are bouquets, toys, dolls and even a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper. The community came together to remember the victims with special tokens.
"We will always have this memory, that's something that every person in this village is going to have the rest of their life. But, we're going to make some good memories of this family, because they were a good family," Wood said.
Wood thanked the community, in Clarksville and across the entire region, from Dayton to Cincinnati, for their generosity, as tens of thousands of dollars have been donated to the family.
"We needed shoulders to cry on, we needed people to lean on, and we certainly got that," Wood said.
