Row, row, row your canoe — to work

KENT — Kent Center School assistant teacher Pattie Heaton is a determined person and a conscientious educator. So when the roads flooded recently, making it impossible for her to drive to work, she grabbed a paddle and found an alternate route.She and her husband, Kevin, live on Route 7, south of the traffic light. When the Housatonic River overflows, Heaton said their home feels like it’s submerged in the river.When Tropical Storm Irene hit Kent, causing the river to overflow its banks in several areas, Heaton’s home was flooded as were the roads around her. Driving to school became problematic, if not impossible.But, realizing before Irene hit that the storm was likely to cause the river to overflow, Heaton and her husband had parked their car in the nearby Kent Land Trust field, which is at a slightly higher elevation and avoids most river overflows. They then walked home. The next morning, they walked out the back door of their home, got into the canoe they keep tied up there, and rowed north to a point on the river near where their car was parked.“It was a school day,” Heaton said, “and I had to be at work just like on any other day.” The river remained flooded for three days. And for three days, Heaton used the canoe to commute between her home and the Land Trust field.Heaton has worked at the school for 15 years. A native of New Milford, she attended the University of Connecticut at Storrs.“We just take the flooding in stride and with a sense of humor,” she said. It does change life, in many ways. “During the flood, with no traffic on Route 7, it was eerily quiet.”In some ways, Heaton is simply carrying on a family tradition with her dedication to good attendance at work. “My late father, who passed away when I was a teenager, worked for the phone company for 44 years and never missed a day of work,”Heaton said. “He instilled a strong work ethic in me.”As for the sturdy and dependable canoe, Heaton said it was purchased secondhand for $50 a number of years ago and now serves her and her husband well whenever the Housatonic floods.