If you’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with our Service Team Coordinator Mike Dayton, then you already know that he is an absolute gem — which is why we are so happy that Mike is back with us as a pivotal member of the Havill’s team.
Mike started with Havill’s as a labourer on the Service team in October of 2018, helping set up mini homes and responding to our home buyers’ needs but during a leave from work in 2020”), he suffered a huge medical emergency. “I suffered from a rare allergic reaction to the Covid vaccine that resulted in autoimmune encephalitis,” Mike explains, “I ended up having a bunch of seizures and, yeah, lost the use of my legs for a few months. They told me that I’d never walk again, and I had the memory of an 80-year-old dementia patient. So I had to relearn how to do a lot of things.”
This huge, life-changing experience still has a huge impact on Mike’s daily life. “I have very bad short-term memory now. I carry around notebooks and if someone tells me something like their name or anything, I forget it right away,” he says, “I was a power lifter for years, and then all of a sudden I got this injury and took me like so long to recover. I lost so much strength from it.” Mike didn’t think that he’d be heading back to work anytime soon, but then a call came from his friend Jeff Ferrand, the Havill’s Service Manager.
Actually, there were a couple of calls. Mike wasn’t convinced that he could come back given all the issues that he was facing. “He kept calling me and he’s like, do you wanna come back? Do you wanna come back?” but I told him I can’t even drive because they took my license for six months after I had a seizure as part of the many issues I had,” explains Mike. Jeff persisted, offering to drive Mike to work and help him start back at Havill’s with a new job overseeing service calls. “He helped me so much,” says Mike.
Mike says that he was glad to come back to Havill’s. “I enjoy this job because it takes me to new places all the time. I can’t stand having to stay in one place every day and I’ve had jobs like that. And, helping people to move into their new homes is really satisfying. People are usually really happy when they get the keys to their place and I enjoy the positive relations that build with the homeowners as I help them,” he says, “I’m usually the person they are dealing with the most, so I get to know them.”
Another reason Mike is glad to be back is the family atmosphere at Havill’s. “I enjoy working with everyone here,” he says, “It’s a small company and we’re a close team.” We are so glad to have Mike back working with us, and we know that our homeowners are too.
