Thank you to NTI and extended family

After some time grieving the death of my daughter, Andrea Akittiq Napayok Ferguson, age 22, I have some gratitude to express to many people, and our main Inuit organization, NTI, for their kind assistance and caring at such a tragic time, for us, and Aki’s extended family.
Thank you so much to the staff at NTI for providing airfares for all family members of the Napayok clan to attend Andrea’s life and death emergency. NTI made sure that family members were included in coming to Winnipeg when Aki, whose brain was no longer functioning on its own, was on life-support.

I received a call from the hospital staff at the Winnipeg Health Centre and from her husband, Brent Ferguson, and the RCMP that Aki had been struck by a vehicle as she was leaving the college she attended for the day. She was crossing a street to catch her bus when a fellow classmate struck her accidentally. Aki never knew or felt what happened to her and she was immediately transported to the ICU.

Aki never regained consciousness again, but remained breathing with life-support. We had to make a decision that no family members should ever have to make. That was to end the life support that kept her breathing. With the greatest despair, we concluded and accepted that, in fact, mentally and consciously, Aki was no longer with us and that it was her body’s natural responses to functioning and machinery and not her will that kept her breathing.

My mother Annie, father Jack, sisters Donna, Della, Madeleine, daughter Janis, and myself and spouse were there for her, but she wouldn’t have known it. At one time I kissed her on her forehead and she reacted, but I think it was my hope that made it seem so. I really don’t know and I never will.

NTI was immediate and swift in their response to our grief; they arranged for the body of my daughter to be flown to Whale Cove and paid travel tickets for all of us to travel to Whale Cove (not including my spouse) and for those of us to return to our communities afterwards.

I also need to thank: Johnny and Rhoda Karetak for their constant attendance, caring and vigilance; Nancy Karetak-Lindell for flying from Gjoa Haven through Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Churchill, Rankin, and eventually Whale Cove to make it as soon as possible; Abraham and James Tagalik and Tommy Napayok for boating from Arviat part-way and for driving by snowmobile part-way in their determination to be there for us; Sally Karetak Kusugak for her assistance in keeping the food and tea hot, cooking and cleaning and comforting without asking for anything in return or for any recognition for her contribution; Emily Tagoona for being available 24/7 with answers, tickets, and countless other questions we subjected her to, regarding travel; Linda Paniyok for manning the constant telephone calls in spite of her enormous grief and hardship; Sheila Napayok and Jeanine; Andrew and Sheila from Panniqtuuq, and Little Megan from Panniqtuuq for being herself and for being unaffected by the grief and for being more interested in her toys or playing in the puddles outside and for demanding to have her way; it was just the distraction that we needed sometimes. She also looks uncannily like her own mother when Andrea was her age.

Thanks also to Willie Adams and Noah Paniyok for traveling by snowmobile to be with us; Hattie Alagalak for coordinating and leading the service at the gymnasium; the Nunavut Planning Commission for the beautiful flowers they had delivered; and the Fergusons for providing the coffin that would have been approved by Aki.

There are still others who phoned with their condolences and prayers, too many that I won’t go into detail; our deepest gratitude for their kindness. Andrea’s friends who miss her very much: Kathy, Michelle, Jenine, Cindy, Monda,and countless others: all the kids who were there to keep us busy and to remind us that life goes on and for us to hold them as so very precious.

I’ve tried to include everyone but inevitably I may have omitted some very important people; For that I apologize. Thank you again.

Suzie Napayok
Yellowknife