Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 21, 2008

POND INLET - Jeannie Maktar and her husband Rene of Pond Inlet were in Iqaluit earlier this month for a vacation.

"We were there for honeymooning, Happy New Year-ing, and happy birthday," Maktar said from her home in Pond Inlet last week.

She has been married to Rene for 21 years and the two renewed their vows last November, on the same day that their first grandson was baptized. The two wanted to renew their vows when their five children were still living at home.

As it turned out, Maktar met her future in-laws before she even met her husband.

Born in Iglulik, but raised in Nanisivik where her dad worked at the mine, Maktar would travel home with her parents from time to time. The plane would always stop in Pond Inlet for a few hours and as the Maktars were the only people her parents - Theophile and Salome Kangok - knew in the community, they would stop in for a visit.

"We would go there and have some tea," Maktar said. "I didn't meet my husband until he started going to Nanisivik. Whenever we came by he was never at home. He was either out on the land or working."

Maktar eventually met her future husband when he started working at the mine as a mechanic.

"We learned a lot at Nanisivik - a lot of memories there," she said.

Twenty-one years later and the two are happily living in Pond Inlet with their five children, ranging in age from 10 to 21, and the newest addition to the family, a grandson born on Sept. 4.

"I have a full house in here," Maktar said.

Maktar works as a clerk receptionist when the opportunity arises. She took the Office Administration Program at Nunavut Arctic College in Pond Inlet. Recently she has been kept busy helping to care for her grandson.

In her spare time, Maktar enjoys travelling onto the land with a snow machine.

"If we can't go, we just enjoy our time here in the community," she said.

Maktar has only positive things to say about her adopted community, particularly the fact that family surrounds her.

Her mother-in-law Theresa is a source of inspiration. The elder recently broke her leg during a snow machine accident while out hunting, but still tries to care for each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

"She's a very great influence and role model to everyone. We love her," Maktar said.