OWASSO, Okla. — Courtney Bailey sought for her sons Penn and Bradford a Hawaii vacation that would give them joy and hope, two years after suffering a family tragedy and also a recent health scare.
"I wanted to show the boys how beautiful the world is," Bailey said.
They snapped a photo of a double rainbow on the island not during a hike but just before sleeping in their rental car on the side of a highway.
"We had six days of paradise and four days of absolute misery," she said.
Bailey said the wildfires that would destroy entire neighborhoods began to cover everywhere in the town of Lahaina except the road they were driving on to get back to their hotel, which by that time had already lost electricity and cell service.
"And once we got up there we looked out our balcony, and the whole sky was just smoked. Like, it was just all dark," Penn said.
"There were no alarms, no communication," Bailey added. "And it was really scary how silent the whole thing was."
The Owasso family spent two and a half days without food or clean air, aching for a chance to leave the charred side of the island to find safety, at one point not even being allowed by authorities to drive back to the hotel.
Bailey said it was the kindness of native Hawaiians that gave them a boat ride back, along with food and water.
"It was super sweet. (One of the volunteers) said, 'Ohana means family. We're all in this together,'" Bailey said. "Because I was feeling bad for taking supplies."
After three days of desperate searching, the kids' grandmother was able to find the family tickets back home.
Bailey said seeing the Tulsa International Airport sign Saturday after days of seeing smoke and destruction can only be described as like seeing a miracle.
She also credits that rainbow they witnessed in the middle of it all.
The Hawaiian word for rainbow is "Ānuenue", symbolizing a beacon of hope.
"It happened at a time where I felt like crying. And I just looked to my right and there was this beautiful rainbow," she said.
Bailey added she's planning doctor appointments for the family to make sure their lungs didn't suffer damage from the wildfires.
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