Nearly one year has passed since Typhoon Morakot devastated southern Taiwan, and survivors are still struggling to rebuild their lives.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster, CTS News revisited Xiaolin village, one of the hardest hit areas last year, and brought back stories of poignancy, courage and hope.

Yu-fang, a teenager living in Xiaolin village, can often be seen burning letters alone after Typhoon Morakot nearly destroyed her hometown last year. Eight of her ex-classmates in elementary school lost their lives in that disaster.

Twelve months later, Yu-fang still find it hard to deal with the fact they are gone. She can only try to communicate with them in one burned letter after another, taking comfort in the hope that the incinerated correspondence may reach her friends in the other dimension.

Yu-fang's case is hardly unique among the surviving villagers of Xiaolin, who bury their wounds of bereavement deep down inside. Mr. Wong, aged 46, who used to have a happy family of ten, including a grandson that was barely one-month-old when the typhoon hit, is now left all by himself.

And he sometimes wonders whether survival means a greater misfortune for him than death.

But instead of wallowing in self-pity, Wong now devotes his time and energy to projects of reconstruction, working with fellow villagers to resume agricultural activities.

He even plans to produce over 100 traditional tribal outfits and share them with other villagers in order to preserve local culture. After all, Wong believes that moving on is the best way of telling his departed family to stop worrying about him.