SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Metis elder Anne Enge, described by friends and family as an inspiration and rock, died Easter Sunday at Stanton Territorial Hospital as a result of complications from diabetes. She was 76 years old.

Anne Enge spent her early years living on her father's trapline. - Photo courtesy of Arnold Enge

Her son Bill Enge, president of the North Slave Metis Alliance, said his mother will be remembered as the centre of the family's universe.

"She inspired all of us to do our best in life," he said, adding that six of Anne's seven children graduated from university.

"She emphasized the importance of getting an education and she did everything she could to not only encourage us to obtain university degrees but also she did her best to support us while we were in university and keep our morale up. She was that foundation from which we achieved our goals in life."

The family's greatest loss is Anne's love and understanding, Bill added.

"Just my mom's presence, just knowing that she's there. My mother has been a Rock of Gibraltar for our family. We'd always have her to go to with our great joys and our great sadnesses," he said.

Born in Fort Smith in 1933, Anne Mercredi spent her early years living on her father's trapline. After her mother came down with tuberculosis, she and her sister were sent to a residential school in Fort Resolution.

She started working at 16, following a two-year battle with tuberculosis, but she would eventually graduate from Grade 12. She then attended the McTavish Business College in Edmonton and upon graduation got a job at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in Edmonton.

She married Bill Enge in her early 20s and had seven children. The family moved to Yellowknife in 1969, where she worked eight years as a matron at the former Yellowknife Women's Correctional Centre. Following the breakup of her marriage, she moved to Calgary with four of her children in 1977 to attend the University of Calgary, from which she graduated with a degree in social work in 1981. She then worked at the NWT Department of Social Services until her retirement.

Anne was a school board trustee with Yellowknife Education District No. 1 from 2000 to 2003, working alongside fellow trustee Terry Brookes. He said he had enjoyed working with her and described her as "a very eloquent lady."

"(She was) a woman who would speak her mind and a woman who was worth listening to. She had many good and very calm and intelligent comments that I wanted to hear," he said. "She helped collectively make a better education system for the kids and that's what it ultimately comes down to."

Brookes said Anne Enge was the first Yk1 board member with an aboriginal background.

She was at the forefront, he added, of the introduction of aboriginal education into the school system.

"She had that magic to enjoy life and she always had a very full laugh. She always had a great smile. She always looked at the positive side."

Bill said his mother taught her children to be proud Metis.

"There are additional barriers to aboriginal people to accomplish things, but in my mother's way of thinking, don't let that drag you down," he said. "If you show the determination and the heart for something, you are going to get there. Dream and aim high and work at it."

Anne married Charlie White last Oct. 17, five years after he proposed. The pair had met in 1991 at the Royal Canadian Legion, where Anne liked to go dancing every Friday. They eventually moved in together in 1993.

Bill said that marriage was a reflection of the kind of person her mother was - a forward-looking positive force.

"She felt that it was time to get married and make sure that she let her new husband Charlie know that she carried her love with him to her grave. I think it really did strengthen their relationship," he said. "It's never too late in life to go after the things that you feel are important to accomplish."

She leaves behind seven children and grandchildren, as well as a great grandchild.

A wake for Enge will be held at St. Patrick's Parish, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, followed by the funeral at 2 p.m. A reception will be held at the Tree of Peace from 3 to 6 p.m.