SO MANY LIVES CHANGED COURSE AFTER '94 DISASTER.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

At 4:31 a.m. four years ago today, the paths of many in the San Fernando Valley careened off in directions neither expected nor sought when the Northridge Quake shook the earth, deeply affecting millions of lives.

Sometimes, like the glasses and china in many Valley homes, everything came crashing down, shattering irrevocably and often tragically. People lost lives, family, property, dreams.

Sometimes the effects were more subtle, almost unnoticed for a time, as temporary decisions became permanent directions, sometimes even positive ones.

But striking or subtle, positive or negative, it seems virtually everybody in the Valley has a story about how their life went in a different direction after Jan. 17, 1994.

Sam Kwak saw his already struggling painting business fail in the months after the quake, then his family lost their uninsured and badly damaged Porter Ranch home and many of their belongings.

Later, recession claimed his wife's hairstyling business and, overwhelmed, she left him with two sons to raise.

``We were very happy: We were young, we both owned our own businesses, we had a beautiful house in the hills,'' Kwak said Friday. ``But after the quake, we totally lost everything. I hope to get back to where we were before the quake.''

Kwak, a 40-year-old Korean immigrant, is a manager at a Compton textile company, driving 50 miles each way so his sons can stay in local schools.

He, his sons and his wife's mother live in an apartment next door to the site of the quake's worst carnage: the Northridge Meadows Apartments on Reseda Boulevard, where 16 of the quake's 60 dead were killed.

Buoyed by his strong Christian faith and help from other Korean-Americans, Kwak said he's slowly getting to a better place.

``We have a ways to go in my case,'' he said. ``But it's absolutely better now. We're stronger. Everything's moving up.''

The quake also sent Basken and Marie Boyajian in directions they never intended.

The couple were supposed to get married the week after the quake, but they had to delay the ceremony for six months. The Reseda apartment they had rented was devastated by the quake, and much of their property was destroyed.

Like aftershocks that still shake the Valley, the Boyajians still feel the quake's impact.

The company where Basken was working as a diamond setter failed, and the couple moved to Michigan, where Marie's family lives. He now oversees medical claims billing for a Sterling Heights, Mich., company and dreams of moving back to Southern California.

``I miss the weather, my family,'' Basken said Friday during a visit to Southern California with his wife and 2-year-old son, Shaunt.

But Marie said: ``Every time I'm here, I think about the earthquake. It was pretty scary. I like it there better.''

At the Northridge Fashion Center, shut down for 18 months by damage that included a collapsed parking garage that trapped a maintenance worker, business has finally returned to pre-quake levels, said marketing director Annette Bethers.

``We're essentially back flat to where we were,'' Bethers said.

The mall's number of visitors was up 11 percent in December compared to a year earlier, and the November sales figures were up 4.9 percent from 1996 totals.

Even in midafternoon Friday, finding a spot in the mall's new parking structures took a few minutes, and many shoppers browsed the stores.

The mall's north end is undergoing a huge makeover, as an abandoned Broadway store and other shops are converted into 10 movie theaters, a bookstore and other shops and restaurants fronting an open-air plaza.

``We're feeling good,'' Bethers said. ``The earthquake is not something we even think about anymore, which is nice. We're really excited. In terms of our outlook, once we get the new area open, this place will be really pumping.''

In the mall's food court, Arturo Nava and Maribel Orneles slowly unwound the odd ways the quake led to their 2-year-old relationship.

She had attended the University of California's Santa Barbara campus for 2-1/2 years, but had stayed with her family in Pacoima an extra week beyond winter break for her brother's wedding.

When the quake hit, walloping her brother's Pacoima store and the homes of many of her friends, Orneles decided to skip the rest of the semester at UCSB and help them rebuild. She eventually went to work for UPS, where she met Nava, who was working there as a freight sorter while going to school.

``If I would have gone back to school, I never would have met him,'' Orneles said. ``That's one of the positive things. I wouldn't be where I am. I wouldn't be happy. I didn't like the quake, but it really changed my life, I think for the better.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Northridge resident Sam Kwak and sons John, 8, and James, 11, stand next to the former site of the Northridge Meadows Apartments, where 16 of the earthquake's 60 dead were killed.

(2) Construction crews use heavy equipment at the Northridge Fashion Center to clear and level an area where a new parking lot will be built as part of the renovation of the mall's north end.

John McCoy/Daily News