With some help, teen beats homelessness to graduate from Columbia Falls

It wasn’t that long ago that Kristen Lundstrom lived in the world of “no.”

She had no car. No job. No phone. No home.

It was late winter. February. During the days she wandered the streets of Kalispell, spending an hour in Walmart, then an hour in another store and then another. Just long enough so she could keep warm and not get kicked out. Once in awhile she’d take a nap in the bathroom. The library was a great place. Didn’t have to worry about being kicked out there.

Over the years Lundstrom was getting used to being kicked out of her home. She didn’t get along with her mother. On the best days they barely got along. On the worst days, there was violence.

Lundstrom recalled one fight where she came home with a $90 paycheck and she said her mother wanted her to spend $30 of it on cigarettes. Punches were thrown while they argued in a car. Lundstrom jumped out and broke a finger.

This was no way to live. On and off through her high school years, Lundstrom either suffered through the unbearable home life, or lived with friends, or sometimes perfect strangers, just to have a place to sleep.

Graduating from high school just a few months ago was the farthest thing from her mind. Suicide was considered.

“I was going to kill myself, actually,” she said. “I thought about it three times.”

But Lundstrom was able to patch together an academic record between attending classes at either Glacier or Columbia Falls high schools.

“Through all of that I only failed one class and that was U.S. history, caused by switching schools,” she said.

An outgoing girl, she was popular at school. But this winter, when she was gone for a couple weeks, mostly out on the streets, her friends began to get worried. School counselor Linda Kaps was able to track her down and another faculty member, an English teacher at the high school, took her in, let her live with their family until she could get back on her feet.

Lundstrom made up the history class and work she was behind in from other classes. This Saturday, she’ll graduate. She’s the first one in her immediate family to graduate from high school.

She has a job at Mike’s Conoco in the deli and has her own little cabin she rents with another friend. Things are looking up. Lundstrom is hoping to attend college someday.

“I kind of want to be a teacher,” she said. “I love little kids.”

But her most pressing need is to take care of her younger sister, who is also a teen and has a baby.

Kaps said the hope is that soon, teens like Lundstrom will have a place to live. The Sparrow’s Nest, a nonprofit homeless shelter, is expected to open soon in Whitefish and there’s hopes of finding a home in Columbia Falls as well.

Lundstrom is taking life in stride.

“It’s been a pretty interesting year,” she said.