Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Fort Good Hope (Nov 22/99) - Almost 12 years ago to the day Michel Lafferty set out on his snowmobile to take his sister-in-law from Fort Good Hope up the Hume River on a cold, moonless night.

Michel was taking Lucy Anne up to visit her mother, Mary Barnaby.

About 16km out of Good Hope, Michel saw what he thought was a puddle of overflow on the river.

"I came around the corner and it just looked like overflow. When the Ski-Doo went through the ice it took me a few seconds to realize there was no ice under the water," he said.

"At the time it happened I didn't expect anything like that," he added.

A slab of rock had peeled away from one of the 50-metre ramparts that overlook the river and punched a gaping hole in the ice.

The snowmobile, the toboggan and the two travellers were plunged into the swiftly-moving river.

"I could feel the water filling my boots and at that moment I thought of God and prayed for strength," Michel said. "I started going towards shore, but then I remembered I had a passenger in the toboggan and I swam back to get Lucy."

They wrung out their mitts and dusted themselves with snow for insulation.

Michel said the toboggan and Ski-Doo had sunk with their extra clothes and matches and he wasn't about to go back in for them.

"It was just pitch dark and the cliffs were straight up and down, so I said, 'We might as well start walking,'" Michel said.

The wind was howling and the temperature had dropped to -30C degrees. The two plodded back the way they came.

Although the two were in a desperate situation, Michel said he never even considered giving up.

"It never crossed my mind -- I just knew we had to start walking," he said. "I was OK because I had lots of clothes on, but Lucy was frozen stiff, her boots were like a stovepipe with an elbow."

Lucy Anne was so stiff she couldn't move, so Michel got behind his sister-in-law and pushed her onward.

Michel's wife Judy had called up to Mary Barnaby's on the radio phone to see if the two had arrived safely. When she found out they hadn't made it yet, Judy knew something must have gone wrong, so she sent Frank T'selie to search for the two.

About 10 km from town, T'selie came upon Michel and Lucy Anne.

"It was the happiest sight seeing Frankie coming towards us, because I knew we were rescued," he remembered.

Both were treated at hospital for frostbite. Michel required skin grafts and Lucy lost most of her toes. While in hospital, Lucy discovered she was pregnant.

She gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Jonene.

That night Michel saved two lives and says the experience also saved his own.

"It changed my life -- I sobered up and haven't had a drink since," he said. "Every night I go home, I thank God for giving me a warm safe place to sleep."