By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
DECATUR - A month after losing her husband, Illinois native April Demas feels a bit more at home in the community after 100 volunteers turned out Saturday to help refurbish the home she shares with her two sons and infant daughter.
Joey is 10. Dakota is 9. And Riley turned 3 months old Oct. 21.
Members of her church in Wakelee were joined by Penn Friends Church near Cassopolis and Marcellus United Methodist Church .
Her husband, Nick, had been renovating their home of five years at the time of his death.
He was self-employed as an accountant and owned his own construction company. “We were good friends for about five years before we started dating.”
Nick was born in Indiana, but grew up in Jones in Cass County.
They settled in Decatur because that's where the “investment house” was on Paw Paw Street. “We were going to fix it up and we were in the process of buying 80 acres.” Her children attend Marcellus schools.
A breathing mask dangles from April's neck. “I have very bad asthma and allergies,” she said. “I have gotten up there and pounded some nails. I have a lot of aggression to take out because my life is in turmoil.”
She said the house dates from the 1860s. “There's a lot of old, yucky stuff in the walls to suck out. My husband and I worked together on the back half of the house. I helped with the siding and the roofing. I like tools and he's got lots of them.”
Rayann Franco, secretary at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Dowagiac, is active with both Habitat for Humanity (vice president) and the Cass County Ministerial Association (secretary/treasurer).
She and another Habitat volunteer, Clint Roach of Judd Lumber and Silver Creek UMC, who served as work site supervisor, helped coordinate the rebuild.
Franco said the Federated Church in Dowagiac furnished brownies. St. Paul's provided breakfast. Wakelee UMC funded the build and brought beverages. Marcellus Cub Scouts served lunch and donated pasta salad.
Do-It Best Hardware in Decatur and Decatur Lumber Yard gave materials. Decatur Trusses made the walls and trusses. Marcellus UMC donated Saylor's pizza for lunch.