MAYFIELD, Ky. — The house had stood on North Sixth Street in Mayfield for 96 years and kept Royce Buck and his wife safe. That was true even as the devastating storm in Dec. 2021 sheared off the roof and upended their lives. 

After the skies cleared, Buck wasn’t sure what would become of the place filled with nearly two decades of memories. “I don’t think it can be saved,” he said after the tornado tore through Mayfield last year. “I haven’t talked to anybody yet, but as I look around, I just can’t imagine what it would take to put it back.” 

The view from a window in Royce Buck's Mayfield home, two days after it was struck by a tornado in Dec. 2021. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)

Nearly a year after the EF4 tornado forever changed the neighborhood, it’s hard for Buck to come back to the empty lot where his house used to be. A battered magnolia tree is all that’s left. “I don’t know that we’re still in shock, but it feels that way every time I look around,” Buck said in November.  

Buck’s law office that was walking distance from his home is gone, too. Without the landmarks he once knew downtown, he sometimes gets lost. “It’s barren,” Buck said. “There’s nothing here. Other than the few houses behind me, which is to the east, if you look to the west, it’s just barren. You can see all the way across this community.”

About 11 miles away, Buck and his wife are starting over, renovating a home in Fancy Farm. He’s hoping to incorporate some bricks salvaged from the rubble of his former home. 

Royce Buck and his wife are preparing to move into a home under renovation in Fancy Farm. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)

The move-in date keeps getting pushed back, but when people ask for an update, Buck and his wife tell them, “three more weeks.” 

Buck's wife embroidered the phrase on a cap he wears walking around the new house. “When we really thought it was going to be about three weeks, then delays would occur, so it’s just gotten to be a joke between my wife and I that we’ll move in, in about three weeks,” he said. “I came home one day, and she had ordered a couple of caps with ‘three more weeks’ on it and so whether it’s going to be this coming weekend, or three more weeks, I’m not really for sure, but it’ll happen one of these days.” 

Buck knows they’re fortunate to start over. It’s already feeling like home, but the future of the community they left behind is harder to picture. “It will always be Mayfield,” said Buck. “It’s just going to look a little different.”

He’s not sure he’ll ever get used to it.