Kim Barraclough
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 03/99) - When Bev Matthews steps into a room one can feel her presence. Her laughter fills up the space and her spirit seems tangible.

She is a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a friend, a volunteer and an artist.

She is hard-working, she is loving, she is independent, she is dedicated, she is reliable.

She is a woman who is hard not to notice. She has an aura one wants to stop and observe for hours.

Bangles and bracelets adorn her arms and her freckled neck is draped with chains and pendants. Rings cover her fingers and draw attention to those hands that have created so much over the years.

Matthews came to Yellowknife in 1975 with her husband, Lorne, and two daughters, Mykaela and Rebecca.

At the time Mykaela was five and Rebecca was two.

Lorne was offered a job in Yellowknife working for the territorial government's planning and program evaluation department.

Lorne and Bev had lived in Jamaica and then Malaysia before returning to Bev's hometown of Winnipeg for a year before making the move to Yellowknife.

While overseas, Matthews started learning the technique for pen and ink drawing and sold a number of her pieces.

She wasted no time in perusing her artistic hobby in Yellowknife.

In 1976, she and a friend held an art show at the Yellowknife Inn. Matthews showed and sold a number of pen and ink drawings and her friend sold and displayed many acrylic paintings.

Matthews had done several nudes and they were displayed at the show. She recalls several people talking about going to the Yellowknife Inn to see "pornographic art." Apparently, the nudes were quite racy at that time for Yk.

In 1977, Matthews and three other women started the Yellowknife Playschool. Rebecca attended the playschool for about six months before dying from leukemia.

Hard times hit the family and the community saw much less of Bev Matthews than they were used to. Matthews discontinued her involvement with the playschool and spent a lot of time at home.

It was not until 1980 that she began to open up again. Matthews joined the Yellowknife Guild of Crafts.

At the time it was still located in the basement of what is now the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre across from what is now Canadian Tire.

Pottery and other forms of art became a form of healing for Matthews as well as a passion.

"I think it got me out of the house," she said.

At first she thought she would like to try wheel pottery.

"It looked so easy," said Matthews.

She soon discovered that she preferred hand-building and has been working at it ever since.

"I find it very relaxing," said Matthews.

Currently, she even teaches hand-building lessons to children at the guild and has done so for a number of years.

From hand-building, Bev moved on to a wide variety of art forms. Such as weaving, raku and batik.

There is more though. Not only is Matthews a mother, she has also been offering herself up as a surrogate mom to exchange students from all over the world for about the last 11 years.

Currently, Scott Doncon, from Australia, is reaping the benefits of the Matthews' hospitality.

The Matthews have also had students from Thailand, Spain, Brazil and many more places.

The Matthews became hooked on exchanges when their own daughter, Mykaela, went on an exchange for a year to Indonesia when she was 18.

Along with inviting students from other countries to stay in her home, Matthews has also had the chance to experience many cultures on her own.

It all began when she first set off to live in Jamaica back in the '70s with Lorne and Mykaela. Although they were nervous about the move, they took the leap together.

"I had never done anything as daring before -- it started my lifetime of wanderlust," said Matthews.

The family packed up their Volkswagen van with all their belongings and drove from Winnipeg to Miami. At the time, Mykaela was only three months old.

From Miami, the Volkswagen -- filled with furniture and other goodies -- was shipped to Jamaica.

Matthews recalls driving in Jamaica.

"It was kind of nuts there," she said.

She also said the fact that the Volkswagen was a left- hand drive vehicle (they drive right-handed in Jamaica) added to the confusion.

She feels the move strengthened her marriage. She said it made them not only love each other but, it made them like each other as well.

"We had only each other to depend on -- so, we became friends," said Matthews.

The family lived in Jamaica for a while and then Lorne began working for another company and they moved to Malaysia and also spent some time living in England.

The Matthews returned to Canada in 1974.

"We didn't want to be strangers in our own country -- and our youngest daughter (Rebecca) needed medical attention," said Matthews.

But coming back to Canada did not put a damper on their travels.

They continued their adventurous lifestyle with a move to Yellowknife.

From Yellowknife they have done endless amounts of pleasure travel.

Matthews' country of choice is India.

"It's just magical -- you become serene from being there," she said.

Bev feels Lorne, although he enjoys India, is more of a fan of South East Asia.

After Christmas last year, as they have done for many years, Lorne and Bev left their exchange student with friends and went off to travel.

This year they travelled to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Bev wanted to see the Temples of Angkor Wat.

"It was nice," she said.

Although she added that it seemed smaller in person compared to what it had looked like in pictures she had seen. She said the same of such wonders as the Taj Mahal.

Despite this wanderlust, something has kept Bev here in Yellowknife.

She has been a volunteer in the city for a number of years. She regularly volunteers for the PAC group at Sir John Franklin high school. She helps out with the dry grad regularly. She is the president of the Yellowknife Guild of Crafts and has held the position before. She has also sat on the Guild board for many years. She also is the president of the Canadian Diabetes Association in the NWT and Alberta.

She is also an amazing cook and she and Lorne have donated a night of ethnic cooking to the Celebrity Auction each year. Matthews feels that if she uses a service she should give back to it.

She knows at least one person on every street she walks down and has made many friends over the last 25 years.

"I like the sense of community -- the people are friendly."

Matthews feels the community has grown a lot since she first came here in '75. She remembers when there was nothing past Northland Trailer Park.

Although, she did say Yellowknife was a lot bigger than what she expected when she found out she was moving in '75.

"I was pleasantly surprised -- it was much larger than I expected."

She currently works for Monopros Limited as a secretary.

And so she will continue to wander through life -- creating art, making friends, discovering new places and appreciating life.