Special Section: Looking Back: The '77 Flood

Betty Thomas has a special love for life and a hard-to-miss spirit of perseverance.

"I guess I'm pretty tough because I really don't sit around and feel sorry for myself," she said.

It would have been easy for the great-grandmother of three to do just that. She and her husband lost 10 family members and numerous friends in the 1977 flood.

Thomas' 3-month-old great nephew, her husband's brother and sister, their spouses and several nieces and nephews were killed when the Laurel Run dam broke loose above Tanneryville.

Thomas and her late husband, Cliff, as well as their two young granddaughters visiting from New York barely escaped the floodwaters themselves.

"We hadn't even gone that far when were heard all that crashing. It was coming into our place," Thomas said. "I remember my daughter-in-law saying their nerves were a wreck. ... It was hard to believe that we were going to find them alive."

When the water receded on the morning of July 20, Thomas realized half of their family was gone.

"I think that if God didn't put you in shock, you couldn't handle it," she said.

Volunteers helped the Thomases rebuild in Tanneryville, but within two years they moved to Westmont in an effort to move on.

The Thomases lost much, but she said the flood gave them an opportunity to pay it forward. Armed with a unique understanding, the couple later volunteered to help flood and tornado victims in Brady's Bend and Tionesta. Last September, Cliff died after suffering a broken neck while doing what he loved most -- helping a neighbor.

She said, after all of the heartache, she learned an inspiring and profound lesson.

"Since you can't do anything for the dead, the next best thing is go to where the living are, having the same experience," she said. "That way it really honors the people who died. I think that's the thing that makes it worthwhile."

For more about the flood, visit our special section: "Looking Back: The '77 Flood."