Missi Dowd-Figueroa introduced life again to the fire-ravaged plot the place her house as soon as stood—one sunflower at a time.
The registered nurse and mom of three misplaced her 1898 farm-style home within the Eaton Fireplace, one among two lethal wildfires that tore via the Los Angeles space final January, obliterating whole neighborhoods and displacing tens of 1000’s of individuals.
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A 12 months later, many are nonetheless grappling with grief and sorrow. Few have been capable of rebuild to date, and the remaining face no scarcity of challenges.
“The Altadena I do know and love is gone,” Dowd-Figueroa mentioned, referring to the suburb devastated by the hearth. “Every thing burned down — my dentist, my pharmacy — all of it’s gone. However there’s nonetheless one thing about Altadena that looks like Altadena now, although there are not any houses.”
She’s amongst those that determined to remain. Her technique of therapeutic began with tiny seeds that gave her hope and ultimately turned her barren property right into a flourishing backyard.
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Dowd-Figueroa and her household had lived within the four-bedroom, three-bath home for 10 years. It was the longest she’d ever lived in a single place, and the sense of loss left her suffering from waves of unhappiness.
For months, she would drive to the empty lot and cry. Her grief and shock deepened when she realized that, along with her late grandmother’s art work that was in her house, her father’s ashes have been gone eternally.
“I spent a number of days digging via the ashes simply on the lookout for his little urn, and I by no means discovered it,” mentioned Dowd-Figueroa, 44.
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Gone, too, have been each household photograph besides these saved on her iPad.
“That was like a second grief, too. I used to be like, ‘Nicely, nice.’ Now, if my dad knew, he’d be so dissatisfied as a result of he was such a household lineage kind of particular person,” she mentioned. “I’ve nothing from my father. You realize, I’ll by no means contact something that he touched ever once more.”
Then in the future, after cleanup crews had eliminated the final of the particles from the two,000-square-foot lot, she introduced alongside some flower seeds. They have been largely sunflowers, but in addition included zinnias and cosmos, amongst others, and planted them within the soil.
“I used to be already going there every single day crying, so I used to be like, ‘Why am I simply sitting right here?’ I’d as properly do one thing that retains me busy, and I get pleasure from, as a result of the home I’m in now, I can’t have a backyard,” she mentioned.
Sunflowers can take up cadmium and different heavy metals that may be left behind within the soil, although consultants debate their effectiveness after a wildfire. Dowd-Figueroa hoped they’d assist take away toxins on her property as soon as she ripped them out by the roots and tossed them after they died, being cautious to not depart behind seeds.
For a number of months, whereas Dowd-Figueroa and her husband took steps towards ultimately constructing a brand new house, the backyard flourished, blanketing a big swath of the lot with a colourful show of roughly 500 flowers — vibrant orange and pink ones, in addition to yellow ones with big heads.
“It was actually therapeutic simply to return again and have a tendency the house the place I lived for the longest time in my life,” she mentioned.
Butterflies started to appear, together with a wide range of bugs and small animals.
“I felt like I used to be serving to nature come again slightly bit,” she mentioned.
Development started on Dowd-Figueroa’s new house in late September, thanks partly to round $100,000 in donations through a fundraising web site. By then, the sunflowers, most of which bloom as soon as after which die, have been practically all gone.
That’s OK. With development continuing and estimated to be accomplished as quickly as mid-June, the slowly rising form of her new house is now lifting Dowd-Figueroa’s spirits.
“Previous to this, I used to be simply so depressed, like actually sobbed every single day,” she mentioned. “It simply looks like now there’s a spot that exists. It can occur. We will do that.”
Related Press reporter Dorany Pineda contributed from Los Angeles.
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Subjects
Disaster
Pure Disasters
Wildfire
Louisiana