No stranger to challenge of adversity

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This article was published 17/10/2015 (3844 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s Carolyn Lindner got the flu in December 2012 that morphed into something worse. The active 43-year-old special-education teacher, mom and wife ended up a double amputee below the knee with just one healthy lung.

Now that she’s recovered, she wants to help women facing adversity of another kind she says is more difficult. She’s speaking at a fundraising dinner for Holy Names House of Peace, a safe place for immigrant and refugee women tucked away in downtown Winnipeg.

“A lot of times, people don’t treat refugees very nicely,” said Lindner. She can identify, saying people with physical challenges aren’t always treated well, either. The changes she’s been through give her an appreciation of what women coming from another country, culture and language are going through, she said.

“They had an identity and jobs in their countries — people knew them. They come here, and their identities are gone,” said Lindner. “You have to rebuild yourself.”

Her Nov. 5 talk at the House of Peace fundraising dinner is sold out, but Lindner wants to raise awareness about the place and the women who live there.

The former Franciscan friary is run by Sister Lesley Sacouman and home to 20 women who need a safe place to stay to get their lives together.

“They need to be in a family setting and loved for who they are,” said Sacouman.

“For me, the key was my family and friends,” Lindner said of her healing. “They gather around you, and you feel you can take on the world.”

At House of Peace, the women dine communally at one big table and each has her own room. They share laundry facilities and draw on each other’s strengths, said Sacouman. A member of a religious order, she helped found the place and lives in one of its modest but comfortable rooms. It runs on private donations, said 69-year-old Sacouman, who doesn’t draw a salary and is concerned for its future.

She marvels at the women who live there, her “neighbours.”

“Every single woman, in her own way, inspires me,” Sacouman said, and encourages the others. “They’re their own best mentors.”

House of Peace has 120 volunteers — many of whom once lived there. One of the things they do is accompany residents when they’re looking to move into their own place, said Sacouman. The newcomers are still vulnerable, and some aren’t yet fluent in English.

“You can be taken advantage of very easily,” said Sacouman, who stays in touch with the women after they leave. “They’re extended family.” And they’re grateful.

She said when she met Lindner at a lunch event, she was drawn to her story. “To see someone pick her life up and not be saying ‘poor me’ — what enables someone to do that?” Sacouman asked.

Lindner said she was drawn to the House of Peace.

“I love it here,” she said during a visit. “They’re strong women. It’s the adversity they’ve faced and their strength (she admires).”

Lindner knows adversity, facing it head-on three years ago.

“We all had the flu in my house,” recalled the woman married to a firefighter with a 13-year-old son. “I thought ‘Suck it up’ and I went to yoga. It was hard to breathe. The next day, I couldn’t breathe and my husband took me to the hospital.”

She ended up with acute respiratory distress syndrome. She was put in a coma on life support for 40 days and had a 10 per cent chance of survival. Lindner was one of nearly 4,000 adults hospitalized with the flu in Canada that flu season, 308 of whom died, Health Canada reported.

When Lindner was brought out of the coma, she remained intubated to help her breathe and determined to get her life back. “I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk.” But she knew what she had to do. “You fight. You never give up.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca