“The family feels this is the right thing to do,” says Patrick Cassidy, following the news on May 14 that the search for his brother Clayton Cassidy has been suspended. The search began on May 5, when the Cache Creek fire chief was reported missing, and presumed swept away by floodwater in Cache Creek.
Patrick says that the support the family has received has been phenomenal. “In some ways it’s a positive for me, because with all the stuff that’s been going on in the world I’d kind of lost faith in humanity a bit, and it has really showed that there is a lot of good out there. There’s a lot of good people.
“All the volunteers and the agencies involved over the last ten days have just been tremendous. We all kind of feel we’ve enlarged our family ten-fold. Friendships happened so quickly, and everybody was pulling in the right direction. Everybody worked as a team.
“I think there were over a thousand search teams in those ten days. The response . . . we don’t have any words to articulate that. In a way, all we can do is offer our heartfelt thanks and include them in our family. It’s like a family, with the friendships and support.”
Patrick says that the family talked about the probable suspension of the search on Sunday early on. “The official search is suspended, but we will definitely be monitoring the situation until such time as the search is resumed, and then of course everyone is going to be back.”
He says that Clayton’s wife Rose has been “so stalwart. She’s just dealing with it. She went down to the fire hall on Monday when they were doing clean-up and gave everybody hugs. I’m just amazed at her strength.
“We’re just taking this time to rejuvenate and get some normalcy back in our lives. And as I say, when the call comes we’re all back here.”
