Carl Wolden: Rest in Glory

A fixture at Modesto’s Graceada and Enslen Parks for over fifteen years, Carl Wolden* passed away on Tuesday, November 26. He had been suffering complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) for several years. He was sixty years old.

After a troubled childhood that had him on the streets and into homelessness at age seven, Carl found peace in the last years of his life as a volunteer participant in Pastor Dan Lempenau’s park ministry. Lempenau has been feeding homeless people in Modesto for well over a decade.

Classified as a “deadbeat dad” over a child custody dispute with his former wife, Carl lost his driver’s license before he was thirty years old. He became homeless not long afterward. He moved from Antioch to Modesto in 1996 as part of the Gospel Mission’s culinary arts program. He trained to be a cook, and later found work in an auto parts store, but could never find a job that paid enough to afford both rent and child support payments. Lack of a driver’s license limited his job prospects.

By 2005, Carl had become a permanent resident of Modesto’s streets and parks. After an assault that resulted in a broken jaw near Ralston Towers in downtown Modesto, Carl and a few friends gravitated toward Graceada Park. There, they formed a family bond and vowed to protect and support one another.

A trusted leader, Carl laid down simple rules that included no stealing, no heroin or cocaine use, and a firm commitment to defend one another no matter the consequences. He became a dedicated canner, following nightly routes that produced enough cash to live on.

A lifetime marijuana user, Carl at one time both used and sold methamphetamine (meth) and marijuana. He gave up meth not long after the Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005 made it harder to obtain unadulterated products.

Because he kept his belongings wrapped, cleaned up after himself, and observed basic rules of good conduct, Carl often had the tacit support of neighbors and business people near Graceada Park. He would occasionally be given permission to sleep behind local businesses along McHenry Avenue. His loyal dog, Little’s, provided a warning system and protection against the predators who are a constant danger to homeless people. No matter how bad things got, he didn’t beg and he didn’t whine.

Over time, Carl became known as a ready and willing handyman, a renowned bike mechanic, and a defender of the people he called “the least ones.” He allowed no one in his purview to be bullied or cheated.

When Pastor Dan Lempenau began his ministry of food and Bible readings at Graceada and Enslen Parks, Carl became a faithful follower. His life changed when a volunteer outreach worker helped him obtain a driver’s license.

When homeless samaritan Frank Ploof heard that Carl couldn’t drive because he’d accumulated too much in fines to pay off, Ploof began inquiries into the bureaucratic maze of homeless assistance that ordinarily defeats even the most resolute homeless advocates; he subsequently discovered that Carl’s fines had exceeded a statute of limitations and could be forgiven. Shortly thereafter, Carl obtained his driver’s license.

Not long after he got his driver’s license, Carl was driving a small, used camper van. He and Little’s at last had a home and a bed, with doors that locked. The van was a gift from friends and neighbors near Graceada Park, mostly paid for by one housed neighbor who Carl had helped with a difficult problem a few years earlier.

The van improved Carl’s capacity for odd jobs, but he still couldn’t find work that paid enough for an apartment. And even at that time, some eight years ago, Carl was beginning to have breathing problems. He would walk thirty yards, then have to stop and catch his breath.

Over time, Carl’s breathing difficulties slowly worsened. Still, he seldom missed a session of Pastor Dan’s ministry. He frequently used his culinary training to cook warm meals for Dan’s parishioners, many of whom had  been fellow inhabitants of park lawns and back-store parking lots. He also provided rides and temporary lodging for people in severe need. A few years ago, a benefactor helped Carl lease a 27-foot motor home; he made payments with money from his disability income.

During a lifetime that began in the solitude of a hotel room while his parents drank in a bar across the street, Carl Wolden never lost his dignity and self-respect. As his health declined, his sense of mission clarified.

At some point, probably much earlier than even he would have been able to articulate or even comprehend, it became clear that Carl’s mission in life was that of a shepherd to the lost souls he encountered on his journey through the wastelands and dark shadows of want and travail. In his refusal to be beaten down into the hard ground of despair, he came to be resigned only to the inevitability of union with his Lord.

His belief in that better life led him through the dark vales of memory and decay and onto a park lawn where he helped feed and comfort the poor.

Only a few very close friends ever knew what it took for Carl Woldon to stand so upright and erect. Because of a childhood accident involving his bicycle and a car, Carl’s hip was so damaged that he had to stand with one leg on tiptoe and tilt himself backwards to stand straight. Maybe the discipline it took to manage that feat translated to an upright character. He was upright in that old sense of the word.

He was admirable for the constant virtues of courage, self-reliance and good will toward others. Those virtues and others earned him the charities he both gave and received.

In the last few weeks of his life, Carl, by now on oxygen, found it harder and harder to get out of his motor home. He would drive to Pastor Dan’s gatherings only to remain in the driver’s seat, hardly awake. He knew his post and would not abandon it. Then he was gone.

May he rest in glory.

*Not long after I met him, I did a series of four stories about Carl. Those stories can be found here, here, here and here. ec