Sepkje Lind is a senior in Kamloops who is regular volunteer at The Loop shelter.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

The people shuffling through the doors of a homeless shelter in Kamloops in the morning look sleepy-eyed and bedraggled after a rough night on the streets.

Inside The Loop shelter on the North Shore is a spacious dining area where a few folks are already seated, taking off their toques and wrapping their hands around hot cups of coffee.

The atmosphere is warm and calming as the comforting smells of homemade breakfast and familiar hum of conversation slowly fills the room.

Bustling in a kitchen just around a corner is someone who is special to the guests and volunteer staff at the shelter, and a little bit unordinary.

Sepkje Lind is in her 90s and by far the oldest volunteer on the team. She's small, energetic and moves easily, appearing much younger than her years. She is known by many at the shelter as Grandma.

“I’m still volunteering, walking alongside those less fortunate,” Lind said, while she chopped up fruit. “I come here and smile, and everyone checks on me when I miss a few days. Yesterday I’m peeling eggs and there are arms around my neck and a young woman telling me she loves me. It’s affection of a grandmother and younger people.”

Sepkje Lind poses with her fellow volunteers Derek Hicks (left) and Claire Nevin (right) at The Loop shelter in Kamloops.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Originally from Holland, Lind is a widowed, retired psychiatric nurse who has spent many years volunteering in her community. She has volunteered with the shelter for three years putting her decades of psychiatric nursing experience to good use. 

“I wish more retired psych nurses would come and do work with homeless people because you need skills to understand and to walk alongside them, help them get more self esteem and help them in recovery when it's possible, when they’re willing.”

Up until four years ago, Lind was taking nursing and psychology courses online to keep her skills and knowledge fresh. She took a course in fear of abandonment following family issues that came up after the death of one of her daughters.

“That helped me understand a lot and it helps for the people here too,” she said. “A lot of them are afraid of being abandoned so they’re afraid to go out in the public because too many times people have pushed them away either from looks or language or their illness.”

Danica Fletcher is also a volunteer at the shelter and has been working alongside Lind for three years. She described her older friend as a social butterfly who is feisty and always willing to do whatever is needed.

“One night we were doing extreme cold weather sheltering, picking people up off the streets,” Fletcher said. “She came by to help me make apple fritters for people before we locked the doors. We went outside, it was cold and snowing and there were people lying under tarps in the snow.

“We start packing people and belongings into my car and she had them all singing Christian songs in the backseat and convincing them to get into shelters for the night.”

Lind recently tended to a client’s foot that had thick skin peeling off the bottom from frostbite and being wet for too long. The client was in pain and didn’t want to be touched.

“It’s the kind of thing you see in psych hospitals or anywhere with people who live on the street,” Lind said. “We couldn’t get his socks off, but they trust me, so if someone else can’t get the shoes and socks off I can. I whispered to a volunteer for scissors and got the job done. He said, ‘ooooh, she’s a sneaky devil.’”

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Fletcher said a client came into the shelter recently with wounds from sitting in urine and feces, and Lind was there to change the man’s clothes, tend to his wounds and clean him up. 

Lind grew up in Holland during the Second World War. Her dad was in the military and she was studying to be a psychiatric nurse.

When she was 21 years old, she and her fiancé hopped aboard a ship to Canada at the instruction of her father, landing in Prince Edward Island. The two got married and started a family, and Lind became a psychiatric nurse.

Lind moved to Kamloops due to her husband’s job placement in 1972, where she worked as a home-care nurse before retiring.

She said she is grateful to Canada.

“I lived through the war, I was a teenager. Too many soldiers died, there are thousands of graves of Canadian soldiers and this is one way I can show my gratitude, by helping people.”

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She has met homeless war veterans through her volunteering.

“My dad was in the military, I know the effects of having to fight and kill people,” she said. “Soldiers come back maimed or mentally hurt and don’t have a home anymore and not enough income, the government does nothing to help them, all they do is talk.

“Some people don’t have a clue about wars and hunger, the fear and the trauma and are not helping people here on our doorstep. Some have trauma or had medicine given to them for too long and got them hooked.”

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Fletcher said the value Lind brings to the shelter goes far beyond her nursing skills.

“She is a role model for so many people, a lot of the clients remember a kind grandma in their past and she becomes that for them. She has great compassion and has no problem talking to sex workers and people with mental illness. It creates bonding with the guests and volunteers, we adore her.”

Emily Hingley is a client at the shelter.

“Grandma is nice to be around and she makes us laugh, we really appreciate what she does for us,” she said. “Lots of people judge us but she doesn’t judge on who we are and where we’ve been. She always has a hearty smile, a good deep laugh and a great spirit.”

Lind said she wants her story to encourage others to volunteer in the community.

“Lots of people have worked in all kinds of different jobs and have valuable skills to offer," she said. "I’m having such a good time, my life is so full and I’m so happy to be able to help. There are rewards, there is pleasure.”

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Lind and Fletcher are planning to go to Holland this year to tick another thing off the ninety-one-year-old's bucket list.

“We’re going to take her home for a visit, end of April,” Fletcher said. “She had no money forever until she sold her house and said she should enjoy it, do it.”

The pair have ticked other items off Lind’s bucket list in recent months including sitting on motorcycle, petting reptiles and riding in a sports car.

Next up on the list? Skydiving.

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