'A family complete': Love prevails in time of woe
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The first thing the van Dorssen family sees when they walk into their rental house is a piece of the past: a framed 8-by-10 aerial picture of their old home, which was surrounded by 6 acres of woods and creeks and carefully tended flowers.
"It was our little piece of paradise," Paula van Dorssen said.
Today, their old home is overrun by deer and raccoons — and mud.
Ten months ago, the Nisqually Earthquake triggered a massive mudslide in the van Dorssens' back yard, driving a shoulder-high torrent of thick muck into their home in minutes.
Paula van Dorssen used all her strength to force open the door and escape. Once out, she watched in horror as the liquefied hill pushed her house 10 feet off its foundation, cracking it in two. The family's insurance did not cover the losses.
Today, the memory of the 6.8-magnitude earthquake still brings tears. But not because the couple lost everything, were forced to file for bankruptcy and now, in their 40s, must start from scratch.
The tears instead fall when van Dorssen thinks of what could have been. The couple's three children almost lost their mother that horrible day, and last year, their young daughter was nearly lost to kidney cancer.
Today, as the family gathers for Christmas dinner at their Renton rental home, they say they will again realize how much they still have.
They salvaged precious photographs and stories Paula van Dorssen had written for her three children over the years. Their beloved pets made it out. They have a roof over their heads, enough to eat.
"Most important, we're still a family complete at the dinner table," she said. "We almost lost a daughter; they almost lost me.
"When we get depressed about the things we don't have anymore, we remind each other of all we do have."
Before the quake hit Feb. 28, Paula and Robert van Dorssen thought they were finally getting back on their feet. It had been an emotional two years.
Chandelle, now 10, had been in remission just six months, 1 ½ years after violent convulsions and vomiting had begun to wrack her body. The year before that, they had buried two sisters-in-law and Paula's mother.
"We thought, finally, things are starting to look up for us," she said.
Then the quake hit. One of only a handful of Puget Sound families to lose their home, the couple stayed with Paula's best friend, Carmen McLagan, for three weeks while the kids and dogs were scattered among friends. Paula van Dorssen said in those weeks, she "lost it."
"I didn't care whether I got out of bed. Carmen had to dress and feed me," she said. "I still felt it was my home, and I didn't want to leave it."
Realizing her friend needed her children, McLagan piled the family of five into her tiny house. Besides Chandelle, there is Kaelyn, 6, and Nik, 18.
Meanwhile, Robert van Dorssen was trying to sort out the federal and county red tape for getting aid after losing a home in a mudslide — something he's still wrangling over with lawyers.
Friends and family came to the rescue with donated furniture and clothing. Their employers gave them paid time off to settle things.
Despite the help and their years of hard work, the van Dorssens had to file for bankruptcy. They had no savings because they had poured everything into their home, never dreaming an earthquake would snatch it away.
Once the bankruptcy is final, the county "will be lucky to get $10 for the house in an auction," says Robert van Dorssen, a service manager for a Seattle branch of Radio Holland.
Adding insult to injury, thieves crept into the unstable home the night of the quake and stole their antiques, brought from Holland when the family moved here 12 years ago.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assisted them with $4,000 to rent a home, where they live today less than five miles from their old home.
Paula van Dorssen doesn't visit her old house anymore. It's too painful. She did go last summer, to see if her beloved, 40-year-old wisteria had bloomed.
"It was so beautiful, and then there was all the devastation in the background. It was almost too much to look at," she said.
Closure finally came for her, she said, when she held a "reburial" ceremony for her mother's ashes, creating a shrine on the rental's deck. The ashes had been buried in their old back yard in an urn, which was broken and scattered by the heavy mud. Her husband and brothers were able to find most of the ashes.
"We had to piece her back together," she said with a slight chuckle. "The ashes were so wet and mud-caked, I literally had to lay her out on baking dishes and bake her at 350.
"I can laugh about it now. You have to."
The family uses that humor to get through the tough times.
"It's the Dutch in us, not to dwell but to move forward," she said.
Today, the family lives from paycheck to paycheck. Paula van Dorssen also works part time as a service representative for Delta Air Lines. Despite the bankruptcy black mark, the couple are hopeful they will be able to buy another house. They recently applied for a home loan for the third time.
The family will celebrate Christmas this year in a different home, with the same salvaged tree, she said.
"We're going to just snuggle and light a fire and rent a Christmas movie, and be together."
Colleen Pohlig can be reached at 206-515-5655 or cpohlig@seattletimes.com.