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Kerry Sanders / NBC News
This flag was found in the wreckage of 90-year-old Helen White's destroyed home. It had been given to her late husband in recognition of his service during World War II. Her grandchildren hung the flag after they found it to show their spirit of survival.
By Kerry Sanders NBC News Correspondent
COLERAIN, N.C. – The family of 90-year-old Helen White picked through what remained of her once-proud home Monday when they discovered a couple of hidden treasures: an American flag given to White's late husband in recognition for his service during World War II and an old photo.
Here in rural Colerain, where peanut farms dot the landscape, it’s hard to see Helen's former home, which was built almost 100 years ago and was flattened over the weekend by North Carolina’s devastating twisters.
Kerry Sanders
Morgan Barfield found a photo of her grandmother Helen White, 90, in the wreckage of her home in Colerain, N.C.
The tornado that touched down here, estimated to have had 165-mile-per-hour winds, stole just about everything.
It took her life.
It also took the lives of her daughter and son-in-law.
But in the debris that is scattered for miles, Helen White's granddaughter Morgan Barfield found a treasure – a photo of her grandmother in a frame. The glass is smashed, the picture was weathered by the downpour that accompanied the storm, but its value brought Morgan to tears.
"It's all I have to hold now. She's gone."
Morgan found one other priceless keepsake: the flag her long-since-gone grandfather was given in recognition of his service during World War II.
Together, Morgan and her sister Madison carefully opened the flag from its folded triangle shape.
They hoisted the flag on a tree in the front yard.
The same tree these college students once climbed as children.
The flag is blowing in the wind now, "a symbol that we will survive this," said Madison.
Kerry Sanders / NBC News
Destruction left by the twister that touched down in Colerain, N.C.
*Correction: This article originally misidentified the family's flag as being a "World War II era flag." Although, as many comments have pointed out, the flag has too many stars to be from World War II. Rather, it was given to the girls' grandfather in recognition of his service during the war. Thank you for your vigilance.