Health executive Lynne Morin was admittedly flabbergasted by how quickly 11 years passed in the Deh Cho.

Lynne Morin worked for Deh Cho Health and Social Services for 11 years. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo

She was wished well at a retirement dinner in her honour on Jan. 7.

The common theme in the farewell messages -- delivered in person by Kathy Tsetso, CEO of Deh Cho Health and Social Services, board chair Allan Landry and by letter from Health Minister Michael Miltenberger -- was that Morin went beyond the call of duty, supporting craft sales and other community events.

Her tour of the region began in February 1991, when she applied for a nursing position in Wrigley. She stayed there, working alone, for over three years.

"My colleagues were a big help because it was really easy to pick up the phone and say, 'What do you think?' " she recalled.

She moved on to a six-month nursing stint in Fort Providence and then put in a year in Rae Lakes. After that she became head nurse in Fort Liard for five years. It was there that she delivered her first -- and only -- baby, a healthy girl.

She remembers thinking, "We can do it."

"I had a good mom (on the table) and good help, a second nurse was also there," she said of the exhilarating day.

"I had a feeling that it was going to be a really positive experience. Babies deliver themselves for the most part, they really do. That was one of the highlights of my career."

In October 2001, Morin became the Deh Cho's manager of health services, based in Fort Simpson. In that capacity, she had to confront the global issue of doctor and nursing shortages.

"One of the things that makes it more difficult to attract nurses to the North is the responsibility. Not all nurses want to work in an autonomous environment," said Morin.

"We have people in the Deh Cho who have been around a very long time. Those are the kinds of people that we really rely on."

Morin is retiring to Edmonton, where she has children and grandchildren. "I'm certainly going to miss the friendship," she said of the Deh Cho. "I guess I'll have to come back and do some relief (nursing)."