Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Chesterfield Inlet (June 29/05) - A woman who was able to hunt, fish, play hockey, and bridge, Sister Therese Isabelle touched many Northern lives.

"I keep hearing people say 'Sister Isabelle, she delivered me!" her brother, Father Jean-Paul Isabelle, told an all-ages crowd under the high ceiling of the recreation room inside the Naja Isabelle Home just prior to the official opening.

Isabelle told of how his sister once visited him in Winnipeg wanting to learn how to freeze gums and pull teeth so she could perform the work in the community.

Another story involved the 38-year-old nurse being refused entrance to medical school at the University of Ottawa strictly because of her age.

More than one person mentioned how she always made sure a task was done well, along with her strict nature. "She always talked about the people," Isabelle said later of conversations with his sister. "She got attached to them, and loved them."

Born in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan on Jan. 27, 1961, Sister Isabelle was diagnosed with cancer in February 1999. She died on Sept. 13 of the same year. Both of her brothers attended the opening of the Chesterfield Inlet facility which now bears her name.