That's awful! I am sorry that you had such a loss during 1977 and that you had to re-experience that loss again when the snow melted.
You are right that Western NY State is dying. Massachusetts is losing taxpayers quickly as well.
I think of my grandmother every time I make Italian spaghetti sauce with meatballs, neckbones.
It was that scent that woke me up every Sunday morning growing up in South Buffalo...and she taught me her Sicilian recipe.
Every time I make it, my friends and relatives tell me to open a restaurant...and my kids beg me to make it for them when they come home from college on break.
RIP Grandma Theresa Cirella.