World Photo by Madeline Steege Roofers Brent Snyder, left, and Andrew Tyree put finishing touches on a roof on Thursday afternoon. Rich Rayburn Renovations of Coos Bay chose four homes in the Bay Area to receive free roofs during this holiday season.

Esther and Roger Haskell have coped with a leaky roof on their Coos Bay mobile home for almost 17 years.

During last year’s rains Esther said she was emptying up to 19 5-gallon buckets every 45 minutes to an hour. She knows, because she poked all 19 holes in the ceiling so it wouldn’t cave in on them.

Fixing it wasn’t an option. Both are disabled, living on Social Security.

Many times Esther would be up all night emptying the buckets.

“Coos Bay has a habit of raining more at night,” she said.

Mold ate through their clothes and important papers after the roof rotted over the bedroom. One of the worst leaks was near the couple’s electrical panel box.

Rich Rayburn Renovations wouldn’t have chosen the Haskell house for a roof donation if Esther hadn’t placed an advertisement on the community exchange Web site http://www.freecycle.org, asking if anyone had buckets. Two people who viewed her ad wrote to the Rayburns telling them of the Haskells’ plight.

Then the Rayburns showed up at her door.

“They were godsends,” Esther said. “It made me realize that there’s still kindness in the world.”