Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Hay River (July 16/01) - A Mackenzie River mermaid once told a man he would live a long, long life. Nicholas Constant of Fort Providence turned 100 this month at the extended care ward of the hospital which has been his home in Hay River the past four years.

Nicholas Constant celebrated his 100th birthday on June 6th, but he may be even older. - Lynn Lau/NNSL photo

On June 6, about 90 people turned out to help him celebrate -- grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends, family, and even some MLAs, but by all accounts, he didn't seem at all fazed by the commotion, even dozing through part of the cake cutting.

If the big 100 didn't excite him much, perhaps it was because he's known for some time now that he was going to live a long, long life.

It was all foretold -- recalled his 30-year-old granddaughter, Patricia Constant.

When Nicholas and his friend, Jean-Marie Sabourin were young men, they were traveling the Mackenzie River by boat.

"They noticed that there was something following them in the water and they saw it was a female fish with long, golden hair. You could call it a mermaid," Patricia retold. "It came up to them, and she was grabbing on to her hair - it went on for a long ways back. She told them, 'The length of my hair, that is how long you are going to live.' After she said that, she just swam away."

"They were freaked, because it was the first time they saw a fish mermaid. They had to be sure, so they told one of the leaders to ask what it might have meant," says Patricia. "The leader said, 'This fish with long golden hair is telling you that you will lead a full life.'"

As it turned out, his friend, Jean-Marie -- a year younger than Nicholas -- lived until the ripe old age of 91.

Nicholas may even be older than 100, if what some of his sons believe is true. He doesn't have a birth certificate, only a baptism certificate and they believe he was about nine-years-old when he was baptized, which would make him closer to 109 -- no one knows for sure.

Nicholas was born in Fort Providence, possibly before 1901. Nothing is known of his parents. He had one older brother and one older sister and he grew up in the town's Catholic mission.

When Patricia tried to trace her family's genealogy, she came at a dead-end with her grandfather.

"From what I understand, my grandpa is an orphan and we haven't come across any Constant family on my father's side," she says.

In a book of oral histories, Nahecho Keh, Our Elders, published in 1987, Constant spoke about mission school days, saying, "We didn't have a good education ... Our time was spent praying, studying the bible and going to church. We read only the bible, never any other books."

In his adult life, Nicholas spent four years running mail with his dog team, traveling all over the North.

"The people he used to run the mail with called him the Wolf Man because he was such a fast walker," says Patricia. "When they were delivering mail to Fort Home or Fort Norman, he was always a day or two ahead of his coworkers. They believed maybe my grandpa was part of a wolf clan."

Patricia says that on Nicholas' left hand grows a little nail, like a claw, between his index finger and his third finger. "He said it's his wolf clan nail. The nail used to be longer but now it's starting to disappear."

Another granddaughter, Shirley Gargan, also remembers talk of the wolf nail. "When he used to take us berry picking, he would put up snares," Gargan says. "He would be gone for hours and my grandmother would think he was visiting his wolf clan -- that's the kind of stories my grandmother was telling me."

He also worked for the RCMP, providing transportation to them in his dog sled, and he helped build the Mackenzie highway to Yellowknife.

Nicholas married his wife Adeline, now 88, when he was 30 and she was 18. They raised seven children in a cabin on the Red Knife River -- about a two-days' boat ride from Fort Providence.

In Nahecho Keh, Our Elders, Constant is quoted as saying, "After my marriage, I hunted and trapped. The low points in my life were the times I had to go hungry ... I have gone without food many, many times."

Patricia remembers her grandfather talking about those times. "In the old days, it was always a struggle because you never knew where your next food was going to come from," she says. "When it's minus 50 out, who wants to go out and hunt? He lived a hard life."

Later, when the family moved into town, Nicholas still continued his traditional ways and would show his grandchildren how to set snares and pick berries.

As well as his native Slavey language, he used to speak French, English, and some Chipewyan and he would tell all sorts of stories about the past. He doesn't speak much anymore, even in Slavey. When he does speak, it's usually to say that he appreciates the people who tend to him, and that he misses drinking beer, says Patricia.

When he's not talking, it's anyone's guess what his thoughts are. From the big easy chair in the corner of the ward, the 100-year-old man rests, and watches the world go by. He spends most days there, maybe sometimes thinking about running with the wolves or about the fish mermaid's long, long hair.