BEHCHOKO/RAE-EDZO - Elizabeth Mackenzie's last words reminded her children to carry on the Tlicho way of life for future generations.

"She always said to love each other, to take care of each other and to listen to each other," her daughter, Mary Siemens, said. "Even the day before she died, she was speaking and that's what she said. After a while, she couldn't say anything, but that's what she told us most of the time - and 'remember to teach your children these values.'"

Mackenzie, a 91-year-old respected Tlicho educator, translator, women's advocate, mother and grandmother, died early in the morning of Sept. 11 surrounded by family at home in Behchoko. Her name will live on at Elizabeth Mackenzie Elementary school, named after her in 1991 to recognize her dedication to promoting both traditional and non-traditional education - a concept best expressed through her phrase "strong like two people."

Mackenzie's desire to learn began when she was a young girl during her five years at residential school in Fort Resolution, where she learned how to read and write in English and French, and picked up the local Chipewyan language while retaining her Dogrib mother tongue.

"She soaked up all the education she could from the nuns and the priests and from her surroundings," Siemens said. "The nuns used to send her magazines or any kind of paper with written English language on it ... to keep up her reading, as she requested of them."

The young Elizabeth Zoe-Chocolate would write lists of supplies her family needed from the English-speaking trader, a skill that impressed her father so much he insisted she and her 11 siblings enroll all of their future children in school.

When she married Louis Mackenzie in 1941, they moved to a hunting and fishing camp and had nine children, six of whom survived their parents. Mackenzie later worked in the local hospital's laundry room and joined the school board, on which she served on for nearly 20 years.

As a mother, she was gentle and understanding, Siemens said, "but she was also outspoken, especially about education and her faith."

Rosa Mantla, co-ordinator of the Tlicho language centre, got to know Mackenzie in the late 1960s while both women worked at the hospital and looked up to Mackenzie for advice on a range of subjects, from bible translations to household budgets.

"Elizabeth was a good teacher," Mantla said. "She's always been willing to share her knowledge and her wisdom, especially being a woman."

Years later, when Mantla became principal of the community elementary school, Mackenzie visited frequently.

"I would walk her around the school from class to class and she would go around the children ... she would tap them on the head or on the shoulder and she would talk to them in Dogrib," Mantla said. "So through her, I started to work on lessons for the children to have an oral language."

In 2000, Mackenzie received the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case for her efforts to inspire young women to pursue their education.

Mantla said even though Mackenzie taught so much during her lifetime, she still had more wisdom to share.

"It's really sad for me that she got sick because I keep telling myself and thinking to myself that we could have learned a lot more from her," she said.

Former Tlicho grand chief George Mackenzie, Elizabeth's nephew and godson, said her death was really a celebration of life.

"She deserves a good place because of her simple ways, humble ways," he said. "Aunt Elizabeth was a person of strong vision for the young generations. She fully supported the philosophy of 'strong like two people,' where the young people should be strong in their culture and in education. That's what she wanted for the young people so badly and always talked about it. So I'll remember her for that."

Siemens said she feels her mother is at peace now.

"During her illness, like the last five days, it rained and drizzled," she said. "But the day she died, the sun broke out and we thought it was pretty symbolic."