After they talked for a while Karen said she would feel all right about not publishing her story as part of the research documentation. Instead, Betty-Ann would work with her journals which would become the account of what happened with Karen and with the Women's Upgrading Program because of the research. Joy and Karen also decided to write something that Betty-Ann would edit and add to the end of the Arctic College program description.

During that call, Karen talked about how she wrote the story as a way of capturing her feelings during the research. She intended it to be fiction, but Joy clearly felt that many people could be identified. Joy later wrote,

I felt like pretending the story didn't exist and that I didn't know anything about it. I tried to ignore it, but sleep wouldn't come. I had to talk with Karen about my concerns and that was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, mostly because I felt guilty for not being sensitive to other people's feelings. If I hadn't talked with Karen, I would never have forgiven myself for not trying my best to prevent something that would sever my friendship with her and others.

Karen said her first reaction to hearing Joy's concerns was "too bad" - it took her right back to many of the difficult feelings she had experienced over the year. Nevertheless, she decided to listen and, in the process, discovered she could tie-up some unfinished ends in the story.

Karen was able to tell Joy things she could not discuss during the time they were happening - particularly her feelings of isolation from her community, her co-workers, and her friends. She explained that it wasn't that she chose not to talk about it. She just didn't have the words to talk about something that she was in the middle of sorting out for herself. She talked about how she felt when some of her discoveries about herself completely changed the way she fit into her community. Karen later wrote,

This change had been so huge, so deep, that it gave me the courage to leave Arviat and make major changes in my life. These were not easy changes, but very scary, sad, difficult, exhilarating, and power-filled.

Joy also talked about how she had been in the midst of change at the time of the research. Since receiving the story, she has spent time reflecting on how she might have prevented Karen's feelings of isolation. Joy wrote,

I realize now that what we have since discussed couldn't have taken place at the time because we were both in the middle of making changes in our lives. My change was job-oriented rather than personal, but it was something new to me so I, too, didn't know exactly what I was doing, or was supposed to do. I realize now that I should never allow work to come between people who care for one another.

Karen felt both surprised and not surprised that they were each able to talk about such a difficult time in their lives even though they are in some ways on the opposite sides of the experience.

It's like we are both standing there saying, "Yes, the way you see it is the way I see it. And this is the way I have to deal with it." Is the "it" our own safety? More than that, we're talking about what makes each of us, and how we make our place and our way in the world.

What was produced

Karen's edited journal- Charting the woman-positive ripples: A journal of discovery - is included in Women in literacy speak.