The next afternoon, after church, Klaus and Susan Gabriel drove over from LaCrete to join us for dinner. It was wonderful to see them again. Since my snowy overnight visit at their homestead much had changed for Klaus and Susan. Fairview College decided to incorporate Klaus's job as the literacy coordinator in the LaCrete/Ft. Vermilion area into Joanne Snyder's position in High Level so he had been unemployed for awhile. But before too long the College hired him as an ABE classroom instructor at the Basic Education Centre in High Level. After getting over the initial adjustment of the new job he is really enjoying his work. On the home front their oldest son was married to a Mennonite girl and Klaus and Susan are soon to become grandparents. "Lots of changes," Klaus said in his good- natured way, "but life in the North is still good."

Before dinner we all went down to the Peace River to try our hand at panning for gold. Larna and her friend Martin waded into the river with their rubber boots, scooped up some river gravel in their pans then carefully sifted through the sludge watching carefully for specs of gold.

After a few tries on my own I was excited to see a wee spec of gold sparkling in the sand. Martin added the spec to the ones he had already collected in a little glass vial. "It takes 40,000 specs to make an ounce of gold," he told me. My face must have shown my surprise because he added, "It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time.but it's worth it."

My hands were numb from dipping them into the late October waters of the Peace River but I was so intrigued I barely noticed. With r heads bent intently over one screen Lorna and I worked together r a while. "This is sort of like learning to read," I thought out loud. Shifting through all the dirt and sand to find a single spec of gold must be like trying to make sense out of a jumble of words."

Lorna laughed at the analogy but said, "I think that's true. Every spec of gold needed to make an ounce is like the tiny bits of understanding we need to collect to make the reading process make sense. Like Martin said, it takes a lot of time and patience but it's worth it."

Later that evening. after a delicious moose stew shared with a group of Lorna's neighbours and friends, I told her how enjoyable it had been for me to talk about literacy with so many different people in such a relaxed setting. Her response was very like Lorna. "You have to remember that the literacy program here is not just community based, it's community owned. The College honours the community ownership of the program and the tutors honour the student's ownership of the program. Except for the shortfall of funds the literacy program is like an unsinkable ship."

Intelligent, warm and caring, Loma is a mentor to many and a mother to all. Her approach to life is simple. "The world is my neighbour", she said to me. "I couldn't go on if! didn't believe that."

Lorna had told me once how much she enjoys old movies. One of her favourite actresses is Katherine Hepburn. Like Katherine Hepburn, Lorna is a bit of a legend (even though that idea makes her uncomfortable) and a bit of a renegade. So the day after I got back to Camrose I went to Poplar Books and bought Lorna a copy of Me, Katherine Hepburn's new autobiography. Inside the cover I wrote 'To Lorna, the Kare Hepbum of Northern Alberta'. I wrapped it in brown and mailed it to her with my deepest gratitude for providing me with such a safe haven of acceptance and thought.