Cumberland Beach resident Melissa Henderson was combing through household rubble in the aftermath of Nova Scotia’s wildfires last week when she came across the urn holding the ashes of a homeowner’s deceased husband.
“I was sifting through and I just felt something different – everything turns grey, and it was raining, and it was impossible to see anything,” she told OrilliaMatters. “You're just kind of looking for shapes, and I just felt something on my rake.”
Henderson said it meant a lot to the homeowner to recover her husband’s ashes.
“I asked her and she said, ‘100 per cent, that's his ashes,’ so that made me emotional; it made her emotional,” she said. “She knows that we found it and that she has closure there, that she didn't have to worry.”
Countless stories like that emerged from Henderson’s recent trip to the east coast with Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization that supports communities before, after, and during a variety of crises.
Formed in the United States as a response the earthquake in Haiti, the Canadian branch of Team Rubicon formed following the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray, now boasting over 2,700 members, Henderson said.
As a seven-year veteran with the Canadian Armed Forces herself, Henderson signed up with the organization in 2019, and – following public health measures through the COVID-19 pandemic – participated in her first deployment in Nova Scotia from June 23 to July 22.
“A friend of mine told me about Team Rubicon because I was complaining that I missed being in the military, and deploying and helping serve my country,” Henderson explained. “He said, ‘You’ve got to look out for Team Rubicon.”’
“I did some Googling, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly what I want.’”
Henderson and her team were stationed out of the Legion in Tantallon – an exurb of Halifax – and tasked with helping residents recover beloved possessions from the wreckage left behind by the recent wildfire.
“We’d go in, we’d talk to the homeowners to decide where their priorities are, like what they're looking for,” Henderson said. “A lot of people were looking for medals, urns of loved ones … there was a lot of pets.”
Although her team was able to recover a variety of possessions for families who lost their homes, they occasionally made the heartbreaking discovery of pet remains, and they were not able to recover everything families were looking for.
“It was emotional for the homeowners and for our teams. We had to recover remains for pets because they just didn't have enough time to get out of the house,” Henderson said. “They had no notice; most of these people just kind of looked out the window, and were like, ‘Oh my God, we have to leave,’ and left with no shoes on, not being able to take anything.”
Although there was plenty of heartbreak in her first deployment with Team Rubicon, Henderson said combing through the remains brought closure to many and helped them begin to move forward.
“In a lot of homeowners, we were helping them in their grieving process,” she said. “When we first got there (it) was very solemn, it was very upsetting, everybody was in a low mood. So we would go in and we’d start finding things, and then they would just balloon up and smile, happy tears, and share memories.”
There were instances where certain items could not be found, which still brought a sense of finality to the event for families, Henderson said.
“Even if they didn't find what they wanted, like certain jewelry because a lot of gold just melts … the fact that we actually looked, they were like, ‘Okay, now we can move on.’”
There were even occasions where humour emerged.
“It could be an object that they absolutely hated, and then we would find it in there, like, of course, that's the object that survived, and that happened a lot,” she said. “It was hilarious, and everybody was laughing, so it was good in that respect – it increased their morale.”
Henderson said the community showed a lot of support for Team Rubicon, beginning with the Legion providing accommodations, and then the Red Cross and Good Life Fitness providing supplies and access to showers, and community members providing toiletries and baked goods to the workers.
“That community, everybody was affected and just felt so grateful for us being there and helping their friends, so in return they helped us and they gave us baskets of shampoo, conditioner, all that kind of stuff and anything we needed. They were very open,” she said.
“Every time we went to a house, pretty much every time we went to leave, there were people who would bring us muffins or doughnuts or coffee and they were very happy that we were there.”
Though she had to use vacation days from her job at CFB Borden to participate, Henderson said she plans on going on more deployments in the future, and she encouraged anyone interested to join.
Team Rubicon may be veteran-led, but Henderson said the organization – which now boasts over 2,700 members in Canada – takes volunteers from all walks of life.
“There's a lot of civilians, too, that have no experience in this kind of background, and they love it,” she said. “It's very welcoming, and everyone's so good with everybody. You're part of this group (of) like-minded people that want to help the community and Canada.”
