Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 17, 2007

KUGLUKTUK - Christmas is widely known as a time to spend with family and friends. But not all of us are so lucky this year.

Cheryl Taptuna, a mother of two from Kugluktuk, is in Yellowknife this month awaiting the birth of her third child. She is staying at the Lena Pederson Kitikmeot Boarding Home until the baby arrives.

Four-year-old Keegan Taptuna receives a letter from his mom while meeting Santa Claus at the community centre in Kugluktuk. - Laura Power/NNSL photo

Since the baby is due on Christmas day, Dec. 25, her family in Kugluktuk - four-year-old Keegan, two-year-old Kaden and their father, Kevin Klengenberg - will be missing her during the holidays.

Though she will be absent, Taptuna thought she would send a gift package to Keegan from Yellowknife. When she realized she wouldn't be able to, she thought she would instead send a heartfelt letter to Keegan.

"I just couldn't get a gift package packed for him, so I gave a letter to one of the patients going home," she said. "I just wrote to him I miss him, love him, I'll be home soon and going to have a baby soon."

And she found a way to make the letter a memorable Christmas moment for the whole family.

Canadian North has recently begun flying into the Kitikmeot region. This year, they flew into several of the communities - including Kugluktuk - with Santa Claus and a few of his elves.

On Dec. 2, when Santa stepped off the plane in Kugluktuk, nearly 100 excited kids greeted him at the airport and the community centre.

Somewhere in the back of the crowd of children, eagerly waiting their turn to meet Santa and get a gift bag, was Keegan. Gale Runge, a Canadian North employee and one of the elves who went on the trip, found him after some searching and brought him to the front of the crowd to get his gift.

She thinks it's important for people like him to be able to be with their families.

"I guess it's kind of like the old saying ... home is where your heart is, and for me, that would be home with family," she said. "I didn't realize the extra struggles they have sometimes in the North, especially when giving birth. They have to come here a month before they give birth - they have to be away from their family and that support."

Taptuna spoke with her son after he received the letter. Though he was scared at first, he had fun.

Runge said she was thankful she was able to take part in the Santa run, and that witnessing the letter exchange between Santa and Keegan was a heartwarming experience for her.

"That was a way that we could help him feel that she was thinking of him and just to make it special for him," she said.

Taptuna plans to return to her family shortly after Christmas with the best gift of all: a new baby brother or sister.