Burnaby couple take in 81-year-old ‘grandma’ found sleeping at bus stop

Timothy Selby and Jennifer Aalders have an extra guest attending dinner with their family this Christmas Eve.

The Burnaby couple met Joy, an unhoused senior, while out for a walk with their dog earlier in December. Since then, Joy says the couple has helped turn her life around out of the kindness of their hearts.

“It’s the best thing that could have happened to me,” she said. “An early Christmas present and it was my birthday.”

The couple were walking by a bus stop in Burnaby when they noticed the 81-year-old asleep on a bench with her belongings. Aalder says they couldn’t just turn a blind eye and ignore her situation.

“It hurts my heart to see somebody in that position,” Aalders said.

Aalders says seeing Joy wet and sleeping on a bench in the cold was hard to witness. She spent days trying to find Joy a shelter, but says they were all full.

“There weren’t any suitable places for her demographic, which is just elderly and needing help to get housed,” Aalders said.

With no luck at any shelter, Aalders started a GoFundMe to share Joy’s story and try to raise some money to help her find a home.

Joy says living on the street has been a painful experience.

“(I was) soaking wet from two days of rain,” she said. “My heart was just broken. I didn’t know what to do. And these two people… made it right for me.”

Selby says they’re doing whatever they can to help Joy, because she deserves it.

“It’s heartbreaking to see a grandmother out there on the street and unable to move because she’s in pain,” Selby said. “She deserves a roof over her head, a warm shower.”

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Joy says she spent years living out of a van before she became homeless, and she says not everyone has been kind to her while living on the streets.

“There were others who would say ‘Why are you here? Don’t you have family? Why don’t you get housing at the ministry?’ and I would say ‘I’m trying,'” she said.

Now, the couple has used the money from the online fundraiser to pay for a temporary place for Joy while she waits for more permanent housing.

“Now I have a real bed and it doesn’t hurt to lie down,” Joy said.

Selby says people in Burnaby have been kind, helping Joy with the cost of rent and food.

As a Christmas present, the couple is taking their newly adopted “grandma” shopping for some new shoes and a bag with wheels, so she doesn’t have to carry her belongings.

“I had no one. Now, I (have someone),” she said. “And everyday, I feel better. I know I will.”