The Bridge That Holds Even When You Forget It's There

In 2005, a young couple named David and Maria closed on their first home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Three years later, the Cedar River surged over its banks in the worst flood the city had ever seen. Water swallowed their neighborhood whole. They lost nearly everything. When they finally returned to gut their ruined house, David found something wedged behind the water heater — their marriage certificate, still legible inside its waterlogged frame.…