‘There's Life Because They're Alive’: Barnsdall Woman Finds Hope In Town's Future After Sunflowers Bloom Amidst Debris

Two and a half months after a deadly EF-4 tornado went through Barnsdall, new symbols of hope are blossoming around town. 

"Everybody lost everything, and I just feel so guilty because my house is standing, but I thank God for it every day," said Lela Moles. 

Lela Moles lived in the last house standing on her street. She said she was grateful but devastated.

"Just breaks my heart." 

After making repairs to her home, she tried getting back to her normal routine, but it was hard.

"When I come out here and have coffee every morning, I usually sit here in this corner, and I cry every day," she said. 

Tears for what had been lost - but a glimmer of hope bloomed nearby.

"That one there. I look at it every day, and I don't know where it came from because it wasn't there before," Moles said, looking to the side of her house. 

A single sunflower, not in a garden, or a flowerpot, rose through what was left. It became a sign for Lela of what was to come.

"That there's life. You just got to hang in there. That there's life because they're alive," she said. 

Not just one by her house, but dozens popped up through the debris.

"They're just so pretty. I mean, you look at them, and you just want to smile with them. I mean, they look like they're just smiling," said Moles. 

Holding onto those smiles as encouragement, Lela hoped others in her hometown would see them as a way to keep pushing forward too.

"It's just life, and they're going to grow, and I know people are saying that Barnsdall is going to grow back, and I think they're getting that from the sunflowers, I really do," Moles said.