SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - When Sister Dora Durand leaves for Edmonton next month, it will bring an end to the Grey Nuns' 143 years of service in the North.

Sister Dora Durand, the last of the Grey Nuns in the North, is leaving for Edmonton Dec. 7. Her departure marks the end of 143 years of service by Grey Nuns North of 60. - Terrence McEachern/NNSL photo

Durand, who has served in the North since 1980, is scheduled to leave Yellowknife on Dec. 7.

Durand began her religious career at the age of 17 when she left her home of Edmonton and moved to St. Albert, Alta. She worked for more than 20 years in Saskatchewan and Alberta before coming to the North in 1980 at the age of 46.

She spent six years in Inuvik and one year in Fort Smith before relocating to Yellowknife in 1987 to work in the city's convent and then at the Trappers Lake Spirituality Centre, where she works today. "We call her the heart of the community of Trappers Lake area. She's made people feel welcome there for 20 years," said Murray Chatlain, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith.

Durand said her inspiration for joining the church was to help the poor, especially children and orphans, and to help create an environment that is non-violent with "good moral values."

Now 76, she said it's time to return home to Edmonton. She said she has mixed feelings about leaving Yellowknife. She'll miss her friends in the city but in Edmonton she will be working in a senior's home with other nuns.

"We sisters don't really retire," she said with a laugh.

The number of Grey Nuns hit its peak in the North in the 1960s with 120, but numbers have since declined.

"People have lost the desire to enter the religious life in many places in North America and Europe, so the young women aren't becoming Sisters in the way they used to," said Chatlain.

Another reason for the decline in numbers is that government workers took over providing health care and education services in the North.

The Grey Nuns were founded by Marie-Marguerite d'Youville in Montreal in 1737. The group grew and spread across Canada, and in 1867, the first Grey Nuns arrived in the North at Fort Providence in 1867. They continued to spread across the North to places like Fort Resolution, Fort Smith, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. The focus of their work was education and health care, in many cases working in hospitals, clinics and schools, including residential schools.

Chatlain said there is sadness in seeing Durand, the last of the North's Grey Nuns, leave.

"She has been a very humble, generous, friendly person in the ministry," he said.

But he added he also sees an opportunity for Northerners to continue the work the Sisters started so long ago.

"It's like there is a time for everything, and if that door is closing then another one is to open in terms of calling people to serve and show the faith, the care for each others, that the Grey Nuns tried to do," he said. "It's time for that to come from people of the North more and more. It's already happening."

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