SAN ANTONIO — A beautiful sunflower field right here in San Antonio is open now for visitors, but many people may not know the story behind its inspiration.
"Mother nature is very persnickety," Brian Billeck says.
Billeck is the sunflower grower who successfully planted more than 10 acres of giant sunflowers at Trader's Village on the southwest side of San Antonio. He says the field was months in the making.
“Generally speaking, it takes 10 -12 weeks for the sunflowers to go from seedling to this," Billeck said gesturing toward the flowers.
This year is the third time he has planted his overflowing field.
"We were just wrapping up the cornfield that we do in the Fall and I started thinking…’I wonder if I can do sunflowers?’ I spent two weeks studying to be a sunflower farmer then pitched it to Traders village and they thought it was a good idea so we got sunflower seeds and WAP," Billeck said.
The sunflowers hold a special meaning to Billeck. He originally planted them in honor of his son who died after a battle with cancer.
On January 31, 2014, Brian's son Damon was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. His mother had initially noticed a large mass in his arm, while giving him a hug.
“At which point I just dropped to my knees. How do you deal with that? How do you cope?" Billeck said. “I went to the hospital expecting to see Damon sad or crying but he’s laughing and cracking jokes. He stayed that way all the way through.”
After undergoing limb-saving surgey on his arm, a year later the cancer returned. Brian and Damon's mother had to make the difficult decision to have his arm amputated.
“Mom starts crying and Damon looks at me to see how I’ll respond and I ask, ‘what do you think Damon?’ and he looked at him and says 'I’d rather hug my mom and dad with one arm than have them bury me with two,'” Billeck said.
As he continued his fight, Damon became a beacon of hope for other kids going through their own battles. He even garnered attention from the big kids. Captain American and the Avengers sent him personalized notes during his treatments.
“Damon would go, 'Dad people call me an inspiration and I don’t understand what that means' and I would tell him ‘people like you aren’t supposed to exist, you smile when you’re not supposed to smile, you laugh when you should cry that’s rare. –and he goes ‘well you do’ and I say, ‘I do because YOU do.'" Billeck said.
His final diagnosis came in 2018.
“On March 31, he went into the hospital and three days later he passed away,” Billeck said. “Strength isn’t measured by how much one can lift, strength is measured by how much one can lift others…that’s the way Damon lived his life.”
Even through is passing, Damon seems to lift the spirits of anyone who chooses to plant their feet on the soil.
"The sunflowers will have shifted. They follow the sun," Billeck said.
Each year, no matter how cloudy the sky, Brian will continue his tradition without fail, knowing in time, he will see the sun too.
“We always have hope no matter what—there’s always hope we just have to find it."