The tone of his voice will always haunt.
The tone, that is, taken by Gov. Jim Justice a year ago.
He wasn't West Virginia's governor at the time. And for that one moment he wasn't wealthy or a coal baron or a resort owner.
He was shaken.
The June 2016 flood had devastated the picturesque Greenbrier Valley and his beloved Greenbrier resort. And Justice had been right there. He had experienced it first-hand.
"It's impossible," he said at the time, "to describe the devastation."
You could hear the pain in his voice. Forget your politics for a moment. For at that moment he was not a politician.
He was buckled. He was shell-shocked.
The job at hand, the reason for the call, was to check on the status of the Greenbrier Classic golf tournament.
"Canceling the tournament was a given," Justice said, almost incredulous that the question was even asked. "It didn't even register on the radar."
He paused momentarily and then restarted, desperate, it seemed, to convey an accurate picture of the devastation to those outside the area.
"When you see the magnitude of the death and destruction," he said. "People losing their homes and everything else ..."
He tried again a few moments later.
"You go down in the neighborhoods of White Sulphur Springs and see people who have had their homes gutted," Justice said. "Their belongings are everywhere. You see an old-timey piano that's been in a family forever sitting in the front yard in a pile by a bicycle and the carpet that's been ripped up. You see the windows out of the house.
"We've found body after body, either in Swan Lake, which is on the 16th hole on the Old White [golf course], or down by the maintenance building. Just unbelievable."
"It was hard to look at those images," said Andy Pazder, executive vice president and chief of operations for the PGA Tour, back then.
Pazder was graduated from West Virginia University in 1988 and holds a special place in his heart for the Mountain State. This week, he recounted what led to the cancellation of the Greenbrier Classic.
"Last year's circumstances were just tragic," he said. "I think the best phrase is it was an incredible tragedy. The significant loss of life. The property destruction. In my 28 years with the PGA Tour I can't recall encountering anything even remotely close to what the folks in Greenbrier County and the entire state went through."
What Pazder then saw - what he knew was coming - was a clasping of helping hands. WVU and Marshall pitched in. Churches, civic organizations, independent companies and just plain independents were helping or offering to help.
CBS and the Golf Channel, which were to air the Classic, helped paint the picture Justice so desperately tried to convey to the world. Notices were aired on how those interested could donate to the recovery. Neighbors Loving Neighbors was formed.
"West Virginians pull together," Justice said at the time. "That makes you feel better."
So, hopefully, will the upcoming Greenbrier Classic. Let's hope it goes off without a hitch. It's been hit with a derecho. It's been hit by the flood.
But like the state and its residents, it's still standing.
"What we, the PGA Tour saw, in the weeks and months after [the flood] was the Mountaineer spirit," Pazder said.
Indeed, Mountaineers are always free.
And, we continue to learn, always resilient.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.