Cda Woman Lives For Helping Others

Lidwina Dirne planned to devote her life to God long before the Nazis killed her friends and neighbors.

The wanton disregard for life she witnessed in her southern Holland home in 1940 just clarified her vision for herself. She pledged to demonstrate her commitment to God by helping fellow humans.

Luckily for Coeur d’Alene, that pledge dropped her in North Idaho 25 years ago. She recently was honored for bolstering Catholic education in Coeur d’Alene, but her contributions go much deeper.

“She has been a voice for the poor, for children, for widows - a person who has embodied the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy,” the St. Pius X Catholic Church staff wrote in its nomination of Lidwina as Idaho’s Catholic Educator of the Year.

Big accomplishments for a woman who never wanted to settle in Coeur d’Alene.

After the war, Lidwina joined a lay group of Catholic women in Holland committed to serving people. These women had no plans to preach or convert the world. They didn’t seek attention. They wanted to honor God by living compassionately, humanely and improving the world.

The six women scattered over the years, but, like a family, reunited regularly. They supported each other’s work and kept each other on track.

Lidwina had reunited with her group in Spokane in 1971 when she read that Coeur d’Alene’s Catholic parishes needed someone to create a religious education program. She had a master’s degree in religious education. She reluctantly took the job.

“I thought Coeur d’Alene was too small,” she says, thinking back to the days she bounced between Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia. “But my companions asked me, ‘Do we go where we want or where we’re needed?’ I felt maybe there was a calling here.”

Coeur d’Alene’s Catholic schools had just closed, ending daily religious instruction for hundreds of kids. Lidwina wanted kids to embrace Catholicism, not dread it. She made the new evening classes fun.

She ordered desks with colored chairs for a happy environment. She trained volunteers to discuss and explore religion with students rather than pound it into them. She started a youth board to plan service projects, retreats and parties.

Then Lidwina turned to adults. She started religious discussion and support groups for divorced people and widows. When a need became obvious to her, she took action.

“Religion is life. It’s not a system,” she says. “To be a religious person is to be very human.”

Retirement from work in 1984 allowed Lidwina to expand her service beyond the church into the community. She’d met a divorced mother who worked all the time but was so poor she couldn’t afford health care or insurance.

Eventually, an ignored illness disabled the woman. Lidwina was appalled, knowing prompt medical attention could have made a difference.

“I knew there had to be other families,” she says.

She believed doctors would donate their time if they knew what was happening. A brainstorming session with friends sparked the idea for a free clinic. None involved knew it would take five frustrating years to start.

“There were moments some were ready to give up,” she says with a small smile. “But the stubborn Dutch woman said no, no, no.”

Lidwina’s religious family helped with money and Lake City Health Care opened in 1989 with one volunteer doctor, William T. Wood.

“Other doctors didn’t have much confidence in us,” she says.

The clinic operated one night a week for people who didn’t qualify for government programs but couldn’t afford insurance. The clientele grew rapidly until the clinic expanded to two nights a week. Now, about 50 people stop in each week for care.

Lidwina graciously dismisses the educational honor she received last month and the praises she wins from friends. Awards never were her motivation. The good life she’s lived is evident from the youthful health and energy she still enjoys at 80.

“I feel God has been calling me to this kind of life,” she says, softly. “Happiness is not brought on from the outside. My happiness is inside - in spiritual growth expressed through my service to others.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo