Gary Trempe, 44, left, Shannon Ohmacht, 48, and Amanda “Lynn” Edwards, 43, head back to the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville on Monday from the Waterville Area Soup Kitchen. Amy Calder/Morning Sentinel

Forty-three-year-old Amanda “Lynn” Edwards suffers from stage 3 liver failure and recently had a mini-stroke, prompting her need for a walker to get around.

Shannon Ohmacht, 48, suffers from arthritis, and lower back and knee pain caused by complications from two car accidents.

Gary Trempe, 44, has a whole host of issues, including irritable bowel syndrome, bad hips, fibromyalgia and neurological problems.

What the trio has in common, besides illness, is that they are homeless.

I met them Monday, making their way up Colby Street in Waterville toward the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter where they have been staying.

I ran into Trempe and Ohmacht first, just after 1 p.m. They had left the Waterville Area Soup Kitchen and were hauling a cart, suitcase and duffel bag containing all their belongings. They explained that because they are living in the warming center section of the shelter, they have to leave there every day by 8 a.m., can’t return until 8 p.m., and they must take everything they own with them. They spend their days outdoors, at the soup kitchen, library or any other warm place that will have them.

Both are disabled and receive Social Security disability income, and Ohmacht gets veterans benefits because her husband died in 2020. He suffered complications from renal failure, diabetes and multiple sclerosis, she said.

Trempe was born in New Hampshire, he said, where he lived with his mother and younger sister after his parents separated. He struggled with developmental issues as a child and was in special education classes.

“I couldn’t talk until I was, like, 7, and then I was stuttering,” he said. “Mom’s boyfriend abused me. She was an alcoholic. She eventually left him. Then she met Lester and he wasn’t a whole lot better, but she married him.”

Suffice it to say life wasn’t wasn’t easy for Trempe, who eventually moved with his family to Massachusetts.

“I was bad,” he said. “I didn’t do well in high school years. I was in a special ed class and the teachers were dealing with misbehaving people. They didn’t really have time to teach.”

Trempe said he did something stupid and was charged with breaking and entering. He got into a fight with his stepfather and ended up in a house of corrections for 18 months where he finally earned his GED diploma. After he got out, he moved around a lot, lived with an uncle a few years in New Hampshire and took temporary jobs working as a dishwasher and in a warehouse. At the insistence of a friend who lived in Maine, 19 years ago Trempe moved here but their friendship didn’t last. Later, he got married and that, too, fell through.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he became homeless and has been in and out of the homeless shelter ever since.

“God hates me, I guess,” he said, with a feeble smile. “He’s making me suffer right now.”

Ohmacht grew up in Massachusetts with her parents and siblings.

“I had a learning disability,” she said. “I was in special ed. I had a speech and language disability and had comprehension problems. Mostly now, I have anxiety and depression.”

She has been in Maine 16 years and has worked various jobs, including in housekeeping, dietary and food service. She got married and her husband was abusive, so she left him, she said. She remarried and she and her husband lived in various towns, most recently, in Winslow. When he died, she became homeless and stayed with friends and family until she wound up at the homeless shelter.

“It sucks,” she said. “I tried to find a place, but it’s hard to save. So many people took advantage of me. You’ve got to find a place to live with friends you can trust. Right now the only one I can trust is Gary — and Lynn.”

As she spoke, Edwards came up the sidewalk pushing her walker. Edwards, who grew up in New Hampshire and California, uses the nickname Lynn instead of her real first name, Amanda. I asked how she became homeless.

“It was after I lost my family,” she said. “Dad passed away and then Mom, and then my little brother. My brother was 35 and he died of COVID.”

She, Trempe and Ohmacht met at the homeless shelter and became good friends, after realizing they have the same hopes and dreams. They don’t do hard drugs, they trust each other and they want a better life, they said.

Amanda “Lynn” Edwards, left, Shannon Ohmacht and Gary Trempe head back to the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville on Monday. The trio hopes to save enough money to move West Virginia later this month. Amy Calder/Morning Sentinel

They have a plan, and that is to board a bus later this month and head to West Virginia.

“I’ve done a little research and I found out the rents are more affordable, the mortgages are cheaper and the food might be a little cheaper there,” Trempe said. “My long-term goal is to hopefully get paying on a mortgage but I need to try to repair my credit a little bit, enough to show people I can have responsibility with a bank account.”

I asked each where they want to be in five years. Their response was unanimous: a safe, warm place to live. And jobs, even if they are only part-time.

“We’ve had it rough,” Ohmacht said.

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 37 years. Her columns appear here Sundays. She is the author of the book, “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com