For more than 30 years, Freda Walker, with her benevolent eyes and warm smile, has been the close friend someone needed in their darkest days.
In all those decades, Walker, in her dedicated role as a Richmond Hospice Association and Rotary Hospice House volunteer, forged many tight bonds with terminally ill people and their families, right until the end of their lives.
She said she’s been humbled by the dignity, bravery and grace from patients in their final hours — many of whom sought to resolve long-standing rifts before it’s too late and some who kept a tight grip on the last throws of life until relatives flew in from around the world.
Despite looking on as friend after friend inevitably, given the environment, slipped away, Walker was candid in explaining how she dealt with each loss.
“That was the part that was the hardest; but they all move on, right?” said Walker, one of the founding members of the Richmond Hospice Association in B.C..
“You get so close to them; sometimes spending a year with them and their family.
“But it’s been a wonderful experience.”
Last week, however, Steveston resident Walker — one of the first to volunteer at the Rotary Hospice House, the free-standing facility on No. 4 Road when it opened in 2005 — retired at the age of 88, citing the need to spend more time with her family, who’ve moved away.
A social worker for most of her career, Walker knew when she retired that she really wanted to work with the elderly.
“This is what I really wanted to do,” she said.
“There were only two volunteers at the beginning at the hospice and with my background and experience, I wanted to help them live their last precious years as best they could.”
So many people have so many frightening things happening in their lives near the end, said Walker, and she was “well equipped to help them get through that.
“It’s been very humbling for me, learning every day how people deal with (death) in very different ways and how different cultures take care of it differently, as well.”
Walker said the most rewarding times during her 30-plus years were guiding people towards a peaceful ending.
“For most of them, it was very peaceful and it’s good to know they’re at peace and I helped a little with that.”
As for growing older herself, Walker quipped, “Ageing is for sissies. I’m 88 now and my family has all moved away, and I have a great grandchild in Ontario; I might move there.”
Richmond Hospice Association and Rotary Hospice House thanked Walker for her dedication and wished her a wonderful retirement.
