Atascadero couple returning home after long absence
“They saved my home, my wife and I sat in the evening sun last night thinking about the fact that we got our home back,” says John Shaydak.
This is the moment Shaydak thought he would never see. His home was in jeopardy of falling into the Atascadero Creek but, not any more.
“I didn’t believe it, they said they could fix it and and I didn’t believe it, I saw how bad it was,” he says.
Two months ago, heavy rain created large cracks on the ground leading to his home eroding a part of the ground away. His house at the time could have fallen into the creek.
“There was nothing here where you are standing it was all 75 feet into a whirl pool,” he says, as he walks around his property.
Shaydak describes what happened next as a miracle.
“Thank you very much for what you’ve done, I can’t thank you enough,” he says to Leonard Sutherland.
“Michael and I got together and were talking and said let’s go over there and fix it, it’s the right thing to do, it’s the community thing to do,” says Sutherland.
Sutherland, is Vice President of Michael Frederick Paving Corporation in Atascadero.
He is also neighbors with Shaydak. He says when he saw the problem he and over 20 other companies helped to fix it and all free of cost.
He did this by lining up boulders along the creek’s water line and helping to stabilize this again.
Shaydak says there aren’t enough words to describe what this means to him.
“You can’t just describe, I will be really satisfied when I lay in the bed in the darkness and say ‘I am home’,” he says.
A home he had to move out of two months ago when the foundation was deemed unstable. It’s a place he and his wife have created over 40 years of memories.
“What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get inside of your house? “Kiss my wife and hug her, because we are home, we are home,” he says.
Shaydak says he hopes to be back inside of his home within the next week or two.
He says there are a number of people within the community to thank for helping his family.
