Jillian Dickens
Northern News Services

Coral Harbour (Jan 18/06) - "She's the type of woman who will tell everybody what is right and what is wrong."

Dorothy Ningutiat is speaking about her mother, Annie Netser.

Annie Netser is known in her home community of Coral Harbour as being the one to go to for advice. - photo courtesy of Amanda Ningutiat

"She's outspoken and she tells things like they are."

Annie's grandson, Eric Emiktowt, considers his grandmother to be the most interesting person he has ever met.

""She knows everything there is to know about life."

Annie is a long-time resident of Coral Harbour, and is considered my many in the community as the person to go to for no-nonsense advice.

How did a woman, living life one day to the next like everybody else, get to be so smart?

It's difficult to ask a woman who is as humble as she is wise this question.

But through her daughter Leonie McKitrick's translation, Annie responded.

"Eric and Dorothy say these things because one's my grandson and one's my daughter. It's a given family would say these things."

Upon further inquiry, she admitted she learned from her father Harry Gibbons, a man who converted his strong-willed nature into helpful advice.

Aside from kin, the mother of 12 says she just watches people.

"When you see people doing something wrong and something right, it's noticeable. Some people cower down and can't say anything about it, and others can."

Because she doesn't cower down, Annie thinks "society sometimes views her like she thinks of herself as a big person," said Leonie. "But she does not view herself that way!"

"Sometimes she cuts short advice when she thinks that person is going to view her that way."

Even those who seem to have it all figured out, have things they just do not know. Annie is no exception.

"When people come to her for advice who have problems with children they have raised, she's unsure of what to say because that's their child and they're the ones that raised them."

Before ending the conversation, Leonie wanted to ask her mother one thing.

"What is the one thing you would like your kids to never forget and what would you like to teach them?," she asked.

Without hesitation, Annie said, "About loving and caring for each other."