Sandy Lyndon shovels through the blackened ash that was her dream house, searching for possessions that matter. Her long, gray ponytail sways behind her.
She pulls a pile of scorched Alcoholics Anonymous coins from the foot-deep pile, leaving behind nickels and other change. She holds in her hand years 23 and 27, which she earned this year.
Her recovery community is the reason she can stand in front of her ruined home and say she’s thankful. For decades, she gave her time, energy and money to help others, and they rallied around her in her time of need. In 2012, she founded Homestead Women’s Recovery, a treatment center for women, located on 2 acres of land she donated for the nonprofit. The center is a mile from her Clarkesville campsite.
Chris Autry, who attended the Hickey House men’s treatment program in nearby Helen, said he met Lyndon at AA meetings.
The rhythmic motion of her hands knitting soothed Autry early in his recovery, after 17 years of using drugs and alcohol.
“That really calmed me and helped me to focus,” Autry said.
Lyndon later helped his wife, Sandy Autry, by getting her out of jail and into Homestead Women’s Recovery in 2015.
“Sandy spends her days helping others, and that’s her whole point; that’s her whole life’s purpose,” Autry said. “And she doesn’t get paid. Her service work is everything to her.”
Autry said he and his wife had nowhere to go when they “hit rock bottom.” Lyndon and Star Bridges, the director of Hickey House and a longtime friend of Lyndon’s, gave the Autrys hope.
“When one of our fellows falls, we’re there to pick them up and help them through whatever experience it may be,” Autry said.
Within four hours of the fire, the Autry family started a fundraiser. Within four days, friends bought her an RV. Within a week, a network of recovering addicts and alcoholics raised more than $13,000 and spent a Saturday hauling the debris away so Lyndon could start rebuilding her tiny house.
PHOTOS: Community rallies to help Sandy Lyndon rebuild tiny home
After sleeping in a tentlike dwelling that Lyndon called a “yome” for more than a decade, the woman whose friends call her an “Earth hippie” slept only four nights in a 432-square-foot house that was completed just before Thanksgiving.
Deep in the woods of Clarkesville, about two hours northeast of Atlanta in Habersham County, the air has a crisp taste and the smell of smoke carries in the wind. A wooden stove that heated her yome caused Lyndon’s new home to burn. Her sister, Karen Fain, was helping Lyndon get settled when the fire started.
The local volunteer fire department arrived within 15 minutes of Fain’s 911 call on Nov. 27, but the tiny house and temporary housing were completely lost, as was about a quarter acre of forest.
Lyndon and Fain were in the kitchen making lunch about 1 p.m. when Lyndon heard a noise and walked to the side of the house to see her yome, which was 10 feet away, in flames. Though Lyndon grabbed two garden hoses, the eaves of the house had already caught fire and it spread to the attic.
She could see flames in the ceiling. She thought to herself, “My cat and two dogs are outside safe.” And then she gave in and closed the door to the tiny house.
“We started working on the forest fire,” Lyndon said. “And by the time the first firefighter arrived, we had it 75 percent contained.”
Before the sun set, Lyndon arrived at her sister’s house a half-mile down a dirt and gravel road through the woods. Someone had already dropped off a box of clothes.
“When your life gets better, you succeed and prosper, then you have the hand to help when someone else is in crisis,” Bridges said.
He has known Lyndon since their days in Athens, where Lyndon left in 2002 and Bridges left in 2003 for the Habersham County area where they now live. Bridges joined the board of directors for Homestead Women’s Recovery.
When Bridges heard about the fire and the GoFundMe account the Autrys shared online, he jumped on the opportunity to help Lyndon once again.
“I looked at my wife and said, ‘Honey, your Christmas present just got a whole lot smaller,’” Bridges said. “She said she wouldn’t have it any other way.”
When Lyndon left Athens, she said she wanted a break from working in addictive services after 11 years. She and her siblings moved onto 32 acres in Habersham County. Her parents left them what remained of their once 250-acre farm.
But her desire to help struggling addicts took over, and by 2008 she started what would become her nonprofit.
“I took the house I grew up in and turned it into an eight-bed recovery place for women with addiction,” Lyndon said.
When Homestead Women’s Recovery incorporated as a nonprofit, in 2012, the board of directors decided to build a new 12-bed facility on the land Lyndon donated.
“One of the reasons she’s been in a tent is because she’s been sacrificing her own finances to help other people,” Bridges said.
The morning following the fire, a group of Lyndon’s friends got together to buy a one-bedroom, 30-by-8-foot travel trailer for Lyndon to stay in. It was delivered Dec. 1, so she’ll have a place to sleep while she uses the GoFundMe money to rebuild her tiny house.
“I’m so full of gratitude and joy for humankind. I’ve got the best family and friends on the planet,” Lyndon said. “God is good, always.”
Anyone who wants to donate can do so online at www.gofundme.com/helping-sandy-lyndon.
