Alberta family grieves loved one who died at a Calgary shelter

EDITOR’S NOTE: An image previously published in this story has been removed in accordance with Global News’ Journalistic Principles and Practices.

Every morning on her drive to work in the heart of Calgary, Dominika Kozlowski scours the streets and underpasses, bottle depots and long lines outside shelters — trying to spot a familiar face in a crowd of people: the face of her sister.

“I just kept looking, everyday I thought of her,” Kozlowski said.

It’s been a decade since the Airdrie resident last saw her sister Joanna.

Kozlowski clenches a picture of the 50-year-old  mother-of-three in her hands. Joanna is beautiful, with a beaming smile and bright blonde hair.

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The joy in that picture, however, was overshadowed by an insurmountable battle with mental illness and addiction that led Joanna to a years-long life on the streets.

“Hospitals, we tried to get a mental health order, we tried to take her home, I tried to keep her in at my place — we were just so exhausted that finally we just had to let her go and make peace with it,” Kozlowski said.

Two weeks ago, she got the call she had always feared.

“She was unresponsive and then they took her to the Alpha House and they gave her a mat on the floor, all they can do is breathing checks because they are volunteers and by the morning, 8 a.m., she was gone,” Kozlowski said.

She said the family was notified about Joanna’s death two days later, after an autopsy was done and she was fingerprinted. Kozlowski is wondering why her sister wasn’t taken to the hospital.

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“She had more lice on her head than hair and they were all over her body, she had sores on her — it’s just not humane,” she said.

“It’s probably the worst way a human can die, in pain and alone. So yeah it was hard, I didn’t wash my hair for a few days or eat, because she couldn’t,” Kozlowski said with heavy tears rolling down her face.

She was reunited with her sister’s remains a week later.

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She held her hand through a body bag as together they began the long journey back to their childhood home in Grande Prairie — back to their awaiting mother Maria, to give Joanna a dignified farewell.

“I always told people about my daughter Joanna,” Maria from her home in Grande Prairie.

“I wasn’t ashamed of her. She was human, I loved her so much — I always wondered if there was something, anything I could have done more.”

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Joanna’s children, now grown, also got to see their mom and say goodbye.

“I have just been having a really hard time accepting the fact I won’t see my mom again,” said Abbey Van Heuvel.

“I was holding out, hoping she would recover. I know that day won’t come but I just hope she’s in a better place now.”

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Joanna was laid to rest in a brand new dress, with a white rose and a picture of the grandchild she never got to meet tucked in her hand.

” You couldn’t have found a better mom, a better wife, that is how she was before,” said Joanna’s former sister-in-law Karen Van Heuvel.

In a statement to Global News, Alpha House said Joanna was known to them for some time and staff are devastated by her passing.

It went on to read, “The death of an unhoused individual often feels particularly tragic and forces us all as a community, up against the question of whether we are doing enough to support our most vulnerable.”

Joanna’s story unfortunately is not unique, nor is it rare.

“Last year at the homeless memorial, we heard that almost twice as many had passed away, 400 individuals,” said Chaz Smith , founder of BeTheChangeYYC.

“It’s just an overwhelmed system where so many people are trying to access services with very limited resources,” he added.

Dominika wishes she could have seen her sister alive, even just for a moment one last time. But she said she is in peace, knowing Joanna’s pain is finally over.

“I think that God just said she suffered enough and took her home.”

She said she will continue to see her sister’s face in the faces of others still out there, trying to find their own way home.