ERWIN, Tenn., (WJHL) – Members of the Unicoi County community gathered at St. Michael the Archangel Parish on Friday to honor lives lost during Hurricane Helene.

The evening featured Mass and a blessing of a memorial tree in honor of the victims of the floods.

The parish became a hub for donations and distributions during the storm, but Father Tom Charters said the parish also went through its own struggles.

“As I stop and I think about it, I think about what happened and the lives lost,” he said. “This comes back to me every day because I drive by the cemetery, and I go by the graves of the parishioners here who died and were buried there. It’s not easy. When the storm hit, for several months afterwards, every time I spoke about it, I’d break out into tears. I had four funerals in eight days.”

St Michael’s is a bilingual parish, hosting a large Hispanic community.

Charters said the parish is here for everyone, not just practicing Catholics.

“We are one community,” he said. “And I always use this phrase: ‘It’s true for one community, two languages with one Body of Christ.’ From Matthew 25, where Jesus says at the end, ‘I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink, I was naked, you gave me clothing, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’ That has been the basis of a lot of our ministry.”

Charter’s homily sent the message of the community’s resilience and hope throughout the year. He added that Unicoi County is one year older and wiser, and life can only be understood by looking forward.

“It’s hope to me,” he said. “Death is life changed, not life ended. The Irish have a saying. You cry when a person is born, and you celebrate and laugh when a person dies because you know the misery they’ll have in their life as they’re growing. But at the end of life, they are now free to celebrate with God. That’s how I have looked at death.”