Life in a small town has its charms, as I’ve been told by those who grew up in rural America.

The closest I have come to small-town life occurred for brief period in the early 1980s when our family moved from Portland to Gladstone, Ore. But Gladstone is a suburb of Portland, and is surrounded by the hustle and bustle of urban life.

I mention this today because of the on-going grief that has gripped a rural community in the Texas Panhandle.

Canadian is home to around 2,900 residents. One of those residents, though, has been missing for a year. His name is Thomas Brown. He is a Canadian High School student. He disappeared one year ago, on Thanksgiving, 2016.

He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

I have been reluctant to comment on this story. I have not been following it closely, given that my attention has been diverted in many other directions.

I will not venture an opinion on what I believe has happened to Thomas. But as I have tried to catch up a bit with this story, I am saddened beyond measure by the grief of those who love Thomas and who pin their waking hours to hoping he returns to them safely.

What strikes me, too, is how events such as this affect small, rural communities. The nation’s heart shattered when the gunman opened fire at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a community of roughly 400 residents. Everyone in that town knew at least one of the 26 victims who were slaughtered by the madman. The community may never recover from its shared grief.

My sense as well is that Canadian also may not recover from its sadness until it determines Thomas’s fate. Everyone’s hope, quite obviously, is that Thomas returns home and is able to explain his whereabouts.

Until then, a Texas Panhandle community continues to struggle with its emotions. Prayers are most definitely in order.