Memories In Life

Today, I found out through an online portal that someone significant to my life and dear to me had passed away over the weekend. She was young, and she dedicated herself to the service of others in need of help. Lorri DeJong was a beautiful person, with a beautiful soul, who had gone through a lot in her life.

Though she had many trials, she overcame them all to the best of her ability. Be it work or life, she always had a positive perspective and attitude in the darkest of times. She was someone who would stop what she was doing, no matter how busy she was, to listen to you if you needed an ear, and would try and go above and beyond to make sure others felt safe, secure and happy in their life.

To say that Lorri was selfless would be an understatement.

When I was a young, struggling adult, just out of high school and college, I met Lorri. She was the Director of Oromocto Community Residences Incorporated, working alongside her lovely sister Nancy Tower. I was on a job placement, my first step into my long career in the human services field. At that time, I didn’t realise the importance of the work I signed up to do. I was just looking for a job that I would feel good about, something that would not make me hate myself anymore.

Lorri took me in, she signed me on as a bright-eyed student, and I worked in their Group Home for many years, servicing the people that they cared for. Every day, Lorri would come into the office. I don’t think I ever saw her take a few days off in the 10 years I worked there, and sometimes, when I was working Overnights, she would be in there from early morning to late at night. I remember one night, at the beginning of the East Coast winter, I was working the 12-hour night shift, everyone was in bed, and things were quiet. I heard the door close downstairs, and it startled me. I got up to check and see what was going on, and I realised that it was Lorri, finishing her day. I looked at the time, and it was 11:30 PM.

I chuckled as she came up the stairs. She asked me what was funny, and I said, “Well, no one is down there tonight. I heard the door shut. I thought I was going to have to go down and wrestle some raccoons or a person out of the basement.” She laughed, and I laughed because the raccoons around the home I was working at were quite vicious at times, especially just before winter.

I helped her up through the half door, and she came in to sit with me on the couch. I was watching something on TV, Are You Being Served, or something like that, when she sat and joined me. We chatted about life, and I asked how she was doing. She asked how I was doing as a new night staff member and how things were going in my personal life, and I told her how I was feeling my depression creeping in the last few days, and I wasn’t sure I should be working as a caregiver, how I was afraid I would make a mistake and someone would get hurt being a few months new and now working on my own. She didn’t judge or huff; she just nodded and listened. She said that things would be okay and that I was where I needed to be. She said to give it a few days and get used to the night shift, then she would check in on me again.

She did, and she was right; things did get better. I was good at the job and did have what it took to be a caregiver. On the surface, this interaction seems minor, game day jitters, some would say. Lorri believed in me, and that made me believe in myself. All Lorri did was listen that night, never judging me or worrying about whether or not I was a good choice for the job. When her ride came, she got up I helped her with her things, and she gave me a quick hug before she left, and just that small interaction made me feel better. I knew then that I was meant to be at that place, in that job, working with her to better the lives of the people that lived there, and that was where my journey truly started in this field. That made me say, Yes, this is what I want to do and even now, I work in a Day Program for people with disabilities, alongside my career as an author.

Lorri Dawn DeJong was that kind of person; she was a light in the world permeated with darkness. This is cliché, I know, but if anything could be a light in the proverbial dark, Lorri could and was. She left us young, the best often do, but wherever she is now, she’s with people she's lost and the people she’s cared for. The people she’s devoted her life to have moved on into whatever it is that comes after. She will be missed, her smile, her laugh, her warmth, all taken from the world too soon.

Thank you for everything you did for my wife and me, Lorri. My words don’t do you justice, and the loss of your light makes everything a bit less bright in our lives here on this earth. Rest now, you deserve it.

Love, Nick.