KINGSTON, Wash. — A handful of photos is all 14-year-old Jaxon McKelvie has left after a lifetime at his family home.
"It means so much more to me than just a home," he said. "It's the amount of memories that are in these walls."
The destruction at the Kingston home is staggering.
Last week's bomb cyclone created what looks like a bomb blast at the Kingston property that has been in the McKelvie family for three generations -- 55 years. A 275-foot tree fell over four properties, literally splitting the house in half. The towering tree was on a neighbor's property.
Jaxon's mother, Thyra McKelvie, saidthat in all the time she's spent at the home, she has never seen anyone at the neighboring house. No one knew the tree was diseased. Thyra said it's mush where it snapped near the base.
"It's not our tree. It's not our property, but now it's our problem," she said.
The one fortunate thing was that no one was home when the tree came crashing through the roof.
If the storm had happened one week later, the home would have been filled with family preparing to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
The gravity of that isn't lost on young Jaxon.
"That tree would have gone right through everybody. It's so hard to think that everybody would be gone. Not just me but everybody, my grandparents, my uncle and aunt. Everybody would just be gone. In a snap like that, and there's nobody left," he said.
As the mother and son salvage what little they can from the rubble, thoughts of Thanksgiving come up.
Family, friends and gratitude for all they still have.
"I don't know," said Jaxon, "it's like life means so much more than it did before all this."
"We are holding each other tighter, spending more time with one another and just counting our blessings," adds his mom.
The family says they do hope to rebuild.
Jaxon has started an online fundraiser to help with the process.