Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Fort McPherson (June 10/02) - As long as he can remember, Victor Silalee Stewart has always been able to make people laugh.

Standing just five feet five inches tall, and missing a few teeth in his grin, the 50-year-old recreation leader exudes a playful mischievousness typical of those much younger.

"I enjoy making people laugh," Stewart says. "It's natural, I guess. I was always a funny person. They say everyone has a gift, so you use it to your best ability."

Stewart says his talent for laughter has helped him throughout his life.

Born in Aklavik, and raised in Fort McPherson, Stewart was the fourth eldest in a family of nine children. His mother raised the family alone, working as a maid at the health centre. Stewart says he is an independent spirit today, partly because of how he was raised.

"I would say growing up was hard on us," he says. "There was no public housing and we had to haul our own firewood and water after school, not like running water and furnaces today. There wasn't many facilities in the community where you could go and hang out, but we did have a lot of recreational sports in school."

By the time he was in Grade 7, he was working part time after school. He quit high school when he was 17 to move to Edmonton and train as a cook. He graduated in 1971 with his journeyman's certificate and spent the next 15 years working in construction camps, oil camps, and restaurants.

In 1980, he got together with his wife, Ellen, and the couple ran Al's restaurant and motel in Fort McPherson -- now owned by Tetlit Co-op.

They had one child of their own, Davey, and adopted another, Derek.

Early in Derek's childhood, it became apparent that he had trouble walking. By the age of five, he was still wobbly on his feet, choosing often to crawl. Doctors told the couple Derek suffered from a congenital nerve disorder and would probably lose the use of his legs by the time he was a teenager.

Shortly after Derek's diagnosis, Ellen fell sick. In 1993, his wife of 13 years died of throat cancer. She was 31. Stewart was left to raise their two young boys alone -- Derek was just five, Davey was six.

"It was tough on all of us, but we pulled through," Stewart says. "It was hard on a single father trying to work. The two boys they were kind of helping along. I told them if they wanted something, I'd try to help them, but they need to get it for themselves. They became quite independent."

Stewart gave up the restaurant work to stay at home with his sons, working odd jobs whenever he could.

Grieving for his wife, he began leaning heavily on alcohol. By 1998, he realized he had a problem. "I got up one morning and the kids were at my mother's. I was drunk the night before, and I said, 'This is going too far.' I was on a real downer. I was really drinking lots. So one of the ways I thought I might help myself was to get away from here and the memories."

Stewart moved to Whitehorse, where he worked for a few months at Skookum Jim Friendship Centre while he did some upgrading at Yukon College. He says it was the best thing he could have done. "I was busy looking after the boys, finding a new job. Being busy was one of the ways I got off the drinking."

Although Stewart had always enjoyed sports and outdoor activities, working at the friendship centre re-introduced him to healthy, active living. His sons took up horseback riding and rock climbing, and he himself got involved in swimming and cross-country skiing. "I saw what a difference it was making with some of the people we were working with. I enjoyed it and it was good for me and good for the kids."

A year and a half after moving away, Stewart returned to the Delta to enrol in the two-year recreation leaders program at Aurora College.

His eldest son stayed in Fort McPherson while his younger son lived with him in Inuvik. By this time, Derek was 12 and his legs had become so weak he was confined to a wheelchair. Stewart would wheel Derek to school each day before going to college himself. At lunch, he'd go back to eat with his son, and then return later to pick him up after school.

"It was hard, but it had to be done," Stewart says. "And I still found time to make people laugh." After graduating from the program last spring, Stewart was immediately hired by the hamlet of Fort McPherson, where he has been working since.

It's a job that has been consuming him, sometimes as much as 14 hours a day, running programs, checking on facilities, and writing funding proposals.

He particularly enjoys working with children. "I'm sort of like a kid myself, so it's easy to relate to them," Stewart says. "The rewarding part of it is having someone say I've made a difference in their life. I had a young boy and a young girl say that to me already."

Stewart says he intends to stay in the community for another year, before striking it out some place else -- he has his eye on Old Crow, Yukon. "I want to move on," he says. "But I can do something good here before I go."

When Stewart goes, he'll be leaving a trail of smiles behind him.

Asked where he got his funny bone from, he pins the blame on his grandmother.

"She was just as bad as me," Stewart says. "She told me if I want to stay happy, make somebody else happy. That's the best medicine -- laughter. It makes me happy to see someone smiling and laughing. That's the philosophy she gave."