Delphina Ngigi recently arrived in Canada from Kenya with hopes for a better future but her hopes were dashed as she died at the Dundas Shelter three days after her arrival.
During a recent news conference, members of the community said that the 46-year-old mother of four waited outside the shelter for at least seven hours in the freezing cold before she was allowed to enter the building’s lobby.
The region of Peel in a statement provided to CTV News confirmed that Ngigi later encountered a “medical emergency” and passed on less than 24 hours later at the hospital.
The statement also revealed that prior to her death, Ngigi had arrived at the shelter on the Family Day weekend and needed a place to stay.
While talking to CTV News, Faith Wairiym, Ngigi’s sister, said Delphina, who was a widow, came to Canada some days earlier in search of safety and protection.
She said: “There was so much hope and now there is a lot of despair in the community, at home, there are so many hearts that are broken.”
Wairiymu described Ngigi as a faithful, courageous and outgoing woman who loved people. According to her, she was someone who was “full of life” and had a contagious laugh.
She stated that her sister had quit her job in 2023 to care for her dying father and that she was a wonderful mother to her four sons. She said her nickname was the “Mother of Boys.”
She said: “She was a mother to all of our kids.
“How can it be that someone who sacrificed so much for others, Delphina didn’t have to know you to be kind to you.”
Wairiymu added that she’s currently working to secure a visa so that she can come to Canada as soon as possible and hold a memorial for her departed sister, sort out her affairs, and discover why and how she died. She revealed further that her sister had been battling some blood clots and may have encountered a pulmonary embolism.
She said: “It could be a combination of things, because our body is a system. … It could be the long travel, it could be the cold and I have a millions things going on it my mind, I’ve had this conversation with my family, is there something we could have done better?”
A GoFundMe account has been created to help cover the cost associated with returning Ngigi’s corpse to Kenya, paying for her funeral, and taking care of her children.
