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LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
As soon as Beth McGuigan arrived in the North, she started changing people's lives for the better.

The 43-year-old mother of two died of leukemia on Aug. 11 in Nova Scotia, but her friends say they will never forget the impact she had on their communities.

Cheryl Veitch of Norman Wells said although McGuigan was originally from the warm state of Mississippi, she would bundle up to accompany Veitch during cross country skiing journeys on the trails near the community.

"She said, 'If I can go out skiing, anybody can'," Veitch said, laughing.

McGuigan loved nature, she added.

"One of her remarks to me was being out here with nature, the peacefulness is just like being in church," Veitch said. "Since then I try not to take my ski outings for granted."

McGuigan, her husband, Martin, and two young sons had moved to Norman Wells in 2003 where she opened a spa in her home, called the Whole Healing day Spa and Wellness centre.

McGuigan had beaten Hodgkin's disease a few years earlier and decided to make holistic healing her full time job. Her spa services included aromatherapy treatments, workshops on yoga and reiki, as well as non-registered massage therapy.

Melinda Laboucan, Fort Good Hope's community prenatal co-ordinator, said she met McGuigan after her cousins treated her to a massage therapy session.

Laboucan said the pair became friends and she invited McGuigan to Fort Good Hope where she taught residents about holistic healing and the importance of loving oneself.

"I often brought her over here to give workshops on self love and healing," Laboucan said. "She did yoga with us, reiki."

"She taught about putting ourselves first and how important mother roles are. She just really had a passion for the native culture and our native values and our traditions. She wanted to be always connected to that in a spiritual sense."

McGuigan also spread her message using the local radio station.

"I also had her on the radio, a lot of the community members got to hear what she had to say," Laboucan said. "Her message was strongly geared toward self love and mothers taking care of ourselves."

McGuigan's teachings encouraged people to use vision boards to help them focus on their goals and happiness.

Laboucan said both she and the community's victim services co-ordinator still use the boards as a part of their programming.

"For one of the mothers, it really helped her from that negative thinking and getting stuck in it," Laboucan said. "She's learned to switch over to positive thinking and positive words. It's actually pretty powerful."

Both programs also partner to deliver a once-a-week program called Spa Vision, inspired by McGuigan.

Every Wednesday night from 7 to 10 p.m., the women of Fort Good Hope gather at the drop -n centre for a night of beauty treatments and healing exercises. Ages range from 14 years old to elders, Laboucan said.

"This is to help them get away from home and stress, to sort of rejuvenate and energize," she said. "We also do the vision boards too."

On Sept. 10, McGuigan's friends gathered at St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Norman Wells to share memories, Veitch said. These stories will be put into a journal, which will be sent to McGuigan's sons, Henry, 9, and Liam, 7.

"There is a journal we are going to put together with all our thoughts and pictures, we're going to send this journal to her children," she said. "When they're older, they too will know that their mother was such an inspiration."

Veitch said McGuigan's loving and positive approach to life will continue to inspire long after she is gone.

"She was so vibrant, that's why she touched so many people here," she said. "Never forget her, but also learn by her.

"She was a teacher in many ways."

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