Resources for the Community
Aneice Taylor’s Story I moved to Woodacre in 1972 with my husband, Gage, and our two-year-old son Lincoln. We were delighted to buy our first home and felt we had found “our place” in the world. After living in our charming house in the redwoods for six years, we wanted more sun and migrated to Lagunitas. Our new house was actually an old house built in the 1920s by an Italian family. By then, we also had a two-year-old daughter, Deva. Our son was in the Open Classroom and our daughter went to the Montessori preschool, and we were well integrated into the community. In January of 1982 a record-breaking El Niño storm hit the San Geronimo Valley. The school called and asked par- ents to pick up their children, and the Highway Patrol was alerting people who lived in the low areas to move to higher ground. We had been home for 10 minutes and were changing into dry clothes to go to a friend’s house up the hill. There was a loud roar from behind the house, Gage ran to the back door and yelled, “Run!” We had made it to the front door trying to escape a massive torrent of water, trees and mud barreling down from above. In an instant, it hit the back of the house, moving it 35 feet forward and flattening it. I was pinned under the rubble. Gratefully my husband and children were not seriously injured, but my neck was broken and I was a quadriplegic. In a blink, neighbors, paramedics and a whole community began years of helping our family. We no longer had a home, but the blow was softened as countless volunteers helped patch our lives together. Volunteers helped clean up the rubble, rescuing our things that were still intact. A local real estate agent and the County helped us secure a beautiful lot in the flats of Woodacre. Our local friend and architect, Jeff Kroot, designed our home and local contractor, Jerry Fitz- patrick, took on the job of organizing a team of volunteers.
Aneice Taylor’s new home and the Gratis Builders, 1983 (Photo by Chuck Ford)
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50 th Anniversary
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