DESOTO, Texas — One of Dorothy Chatmon’s sweetest joys is being with family.
“I’m a foster parent,” Chatmon said. “I’ve been a foster parent for over 20 years.”
Her family is smaller this holiday, but it is not because of the love inside her home. It is because of the pain outside of her home.
She lives in DeSoto. Her foster kids were taken away because her backyard was caving in.
“I’m dealing with a sinkhole,” said Chatmon.
She said she moved into her DeSoto home more than 15 years ago and it wasn’t until the last four years that she noticed something odd. “This was a sunken deck, and the wood began to buckle,” said Chatmon.
She found large cracks in the concrete, so she called the City of DeSoto.
“I thought the flooring that I was looking at was the bottom of the deck. And they had a measuring tape and they stuck it all the way down. He said, ‘You realize this is an 8-ft-sized Olympic pool?’ I’m like, no,” said Chatmon.
There was an old covered pool just feet from the drop-off to a creek. It has impacted Chatmon and her neighbors. “She had lost two of her fences as well to the creek, and I’ve lost the fence too,” said Chatmon. “This is like a box but with three sides.”
She said she asked the City of DeSoto for a retaining wall which costs thousands of dollars. Chatmon said she was told it was her responsibility.
WFAA reached out to the City of DeSoto but has not heard back at this time.
“I just want to get my kids back,” said Chatmon.
Her family, friends, and church pitched in to get a contractor to fix the hole. “It takes a village to raise a child, and I have my personal village, and I thank God for it,” said Chatmon.
That support from loved ones filled not only her backyard but also the hole she feels in her heart. “I’m just trying to do my part as a foster parent to make room not only in my heart but in my house so I can get my babies back,” said Chatmon.