Deh Cho Elder is ready for another new year

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It's another new year for Kakisa Lake resident Madeline Simba. Unofficially, this makes 101 new years which the Deh Cho woman has been around for. That number, however, may be even higher.

Madeline Simba's exact age is not known.

Ten years ago, she told an interviewer that according to her grandmother, she was born in 1897 near Burnt Island in the Northwest Territories.

According to church records, Madeline was born on January 19, 1897.

She disputes that, however, insisting that she was actually born in the fall.

Also, there is speculation around Kakisa Lake that 1897 may have been the year of Madeline's baptism, and that she was actually baptized as a teen.

If that is true, the Kakisa Elder could be the oldest living person in Canada.

What is certain is that Madeline Simba is a remarkable woman who has survived some of the severest hardships imaginable.

"She worked really hard all her life," said daughter Margaret Leishman.

"She was a midwife. She delivered lots of babies. She trapped. She snared rabbits," Leishman said. "Once, she shot a moose when she was pregnant. There was no fresh meat, and all the men were out of camp getting groceries. She must have been three or four months pregnant."

Simba, mother of seven children, has outlived two husbands. The first died early in the century from injuries suffered in a dog sled accident. The second died in 1987.

In the years following, she moved frequently between Kakisa, Tatlina, Fort Providence and Beaver Lake, often traveling on foot.

Interviewed ten years ago for the South Slavey book Nahecho Keh: Our Elders, Simba recalled the death of her father from starvation at Trout Lake: "Although we were living right beside the lake we still had to walk for miles to get any fish. It got so bad we decided to move to where a few fish were being caught and hoped we might find moose tracks on the way. We ran out of fish getting there and had nothing to eat for nine days. Nine days and only water to drink."

"My father went hunting but came back empty-handed. This particular evening he went into the bush to get a chicken. In the morning I went with [mother] to look for him. We found him dead. He seemed to be sitting and just resting for a moment.

"We put him in a blanket in the snow until we were ready to leave. My mother collapsed in the snow pulling the sled. The dogs were too weak from hunger to work.

"At last we came to a place where some people had been living. They had thrown away some caribou bones. My mother boiled them and made gruel. The next day we moved to where an old man lived and we buried my father there. The saddest moment of my life was when he was laid in his grave. There must be a God to let me live so long.

"All my sisters died in the same year from whooping cough, yet I live on to tell of my grief for them."

Leishman said her mother has seen many good years and has lived a good life.

"In our Dene tradition, to get to that age you have to live a well-balanced life: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. By the time you reach 100, you have fulfilled everything that was expected of you in this life," she said.

Simba has an active mind. Although she speaks no English she enjoys getting newspapers to look at the photographs.

She also keeps abreast of community news.

"I still want to be alive," Simba said, speaking through a South Slavey translator.

Sixteen-year-old Melaine Simba remembers her grandmother for her frequent gifts of pies and other sweet treats:

"The feelings I have of Grandma are that she is a strong, healthy and spiritual woman."

"She is a great inspiration to all us children and adults and I thank God for letting her live this long. I wish her many years to come."