Living life to the fullest: Grace Priest dedicates 102 years to the Lord
By: Alan Mattson
Grace Priest
Even though she recently celebrated her 102nd birthday, Grace Priest can still tell one heck of a story.
One would never expect this elderly woman, with all the prim manners of a born-and-raised Londoner, to be filled with energy. But her mind is strong; her laugh is hearty; her voice is clear and filled with the oratorical flourishes that can only come from a lifetime of storytelling.
Her stories come from nearly a century of service to the Lord; as she describes it, a relationship of mutual dedication and trust that has carried her through life, including 27 years as a missionary in some of the most remote aboriginal communities in Canada.
Taken in
Since 2000, Priest has lived a quiet life in a West Valley home, taken in by former British Columbia residents Wendy and Claude Hoekstra.
Always striving to do God’s work, Grace, then 93, started an evening Bible study in Kaslo, B.C., where she had moved after decades of missionary work.
Wendy was recruited by Priest to join the Bible study, and Wendy was soon bringing Claude along too. It wasn’t long before they all became friends.
Priest’s husband had recently died, and while she lived in a beautiful log house on Mirror Lake, the property was large, and she wasn’t getting the care anyone in their 90s needs. Wendy, a home care nurse, was awed by Priest’s life story, and wanted to help her settle somewhere.
Priest tells a story during her 102nd birthday celebration. Although her health is waning, she is still energetic for her age, and tells one heck of a story. Photo by Alan Mattson
“I had only just been praying,” Priest recalled. “Saying, ‘Lord, what am I going to do? Will you open up the way I should go?’”
There was a knock on the door — it was the mail, containing a thank you card that happened to have a scripture reading at the bottom: “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.” (Isaiah 58:11)
Then, minutes later, a second knock — it was Wendy.
“I’ve come to ask you something,” Priest recalled her saying. “Will you come live with us?”
Her prayers were answered. She said she’d love to go, and packed her things.
But the Hoekstras’ one-bedroom summer cottage on Kootenay Lake wasn’t enough for the three of them.
Claude, a teacher, recalled working in Cochrane once, and how much he enjoyed the town. So they started searching for a place.
It wasn’t long before the Hoekstras found their three-level West Valley home.
For Priest, after spending two World Wars holed up in the tube of London, and 27 years of missionary work — no running water; no heat — this was paradise.
Wendy had some convincing to do first. “I said to my husband, ‘it could be six years (or) six months (before she passes away).’”
She admits there’s “been a few moments,” including Priest’s diagnosis of colon cancer the first year living in Cochrane.
She fought it off, and “bounced back like crazy.”
After surgery, the cancer never returned.
“She’s exceptional, so that makes it easy,” Wendy said. “And she’s 102. Who would have thought?”
‘The way opened up’
Priest’s connection to God started when she was a misbehaved little girl growing up in London.
One night, after a punishment from mum, “I heard His voice say, ‘Don’t be a bad girl, be a good girl — I want you to follow me.’” Priest said. “That’s how it started.”
During World War II, she became a Sunday school teacher and leader of youth, guiding them through Germany’s terrifying siege of Britain.
In 1948, Priest’s sister, a war bride, moved to Nova Scotia with her new Canadian husband, and asked Priest to come along and study in Canada.
After Priest arrived, she learned the college in Halifax had been closed and consolidated with one in Toronto — but that didn’t deter her.
She spent three years at the Toronto school, finishing her studies and meeting friends that would lead her to a life of missionary work.
“The way opened up,” Priest said.
In 1949, during a summer break from college, Priest and a friend, Barbara Warren, decided to pay their own way and do missionary work with 200 Cree natives in Fort Severn, near Hudson Bay, in the far reaches of northern Manitoba.
They were the only white people there, and they lived in an old wheelhouse with no plumbing, no running water, no oil for the furnace, and no shortage of mice.
The mail came just four times a year.
“We didn’t care. We called for the Lord to do his work,” Priest said.
Finding love on the Mackenzie
After six years in Fort Severn, the Pentecostal church asked her to work with the Slavey aboriginal tribe, along the Mackenzie River, where she would stay for eight years — and find love.
Grace rides a boat down the Mackenzie River, circa 1955.
The leader of the northern Pentecostal missions was so pleased with Grace and the other missionaries along the Mackenzie, they decided to build a church.
One day, Dan Priest stepped off a plane. Standing six-foot-two with broad shoulders, the farm-boy-turned-missionary was ready to build the church.
Dan and Grace had met the summer before doing volunteer work, and a special connection — a spark — was certainly there.
But Grace was concerned about marriage — she wanted to serve God, and was six years older than Dan, an odd setup for marriage at the time.
She said he “didn’t care,” and asked Grace for her hand in marriage three weeks after arriving. They were together until Dan passed away in 2001, at the age of 89.
When others went south, she went north
After her time with the Slavey tribe, Grace was called to work with the Inuit in Coppermine (now called Kugluktuk in Nunavut), one of the most remote missions for the Pentecostal church.
It was 1967, Canada’s centennial year. Most Canadians were thinking of celebration, not a years-long mission in the harsh and isolated North.
But she agreed, and brought Dan with her. When others went south, Grace kept going north — despite opposition from Coppermine’s commissioner, the leader of the community.
“He said, ‘We’ve got the Catholic church, we’ve got the Anglican church. We don’t want you Pentecostals. The plane’s still here — get on it and get out,’ ” Grace recalled.
But like many times in Grace’s life, a path opened before her. A local teacher offered his floor as a place to sleep until a boat arrived with materials to build the church.
The sun was setting, ready for its winter slumber, and Coppermine prepared for perpetual darkness.
The river ice broke with the coming of spring, and the boat came with its annual load of supplies, including building materials for the church.
_______________________
“When most people would run in the situation, she’s willing to stay. That is the type of character I surmised — one that is willing to sacrifice her life. She’s kind of a Mother Teresa of the North”
— Author Tim Day, whose upcoming book A Real Fine Cookie features a fictional character based on Priest and her experiences_______________________
Dan, who was a carpenter, started building just the outer walls, “so we could live in that until we could do the rest.”
Grace and Dan lived in a tent on the church site while it was being built around them — quite a feat in the constant cold and wind of the North.
“We put a sofa in the tent,” she said, laughing. “And I became a carpenter too.”
“You learn these things, and you know you have to do them. You’re called upon to do things you’ve never done in your life before. Even asking me to bring a baby into the world.”
One night, Grace was cooking at a uranium mine, in the hopes of getting one of their old trucks for the church. A foreman approached and told her of a woman — floating in a canoe, in labour, ready to have a baby at any moment.
“(She) didn’t want to go up to Inuvik (the closest hospital) to have it,” Grace recalled, “and they knew there was going to be trouble (with the birth).”
“Would you bring it into the world?” he asked her.
Grace was shocked and afraid — two floating canoes, and the pitch darkness of the North at -40C.
“I said, ‘I’ve only seen how to do it once,’” Grace recalled, “and he said ‘well, you’ll have to do it, because there’s nobody else.’”
It was a hard birth. The first thing Grace saw was a hand. “It wasn’t right,” she said — even she knew the head was supposed to come first.
She prayed and pushed the hand back in, only to see a foot come out next.
It was a breech birth — meaning the baby was being born feet-first, a serious complication that could lead to the infant’s death.
After hours of prayer and worry, the little girl finally came out. “She was only four pounds,” Grace said.
They sent for the nurse, and Grace’s husband brought them in from the canoes.
“They called it Grace, after me. Because they were so thankful.”
The church still stands
Despite warnings from the church about working with northern aboriginals, the relationship between Grace and the Coppermine Inuit started well and only grew during the nine years she spent there.
“They took to us and loved us right away. (They) were so good to us . . . they brought us this lovely arctic char, the best fish in the world.”
Priest as a missionary with Inuit children in Coppermine, now known as Kugluktuk.
Particularly, her connection with the children of Coppermine was special.
“I taught them how to knit and crochet. I showed them how to cook, and they loved that.”
That love became obvious when a couple showed up at the door in Cochrane this summer, asking for Grace.
At first, Grace had no idea who they were.
The man said, “Do you remember Benny Doctor?”
It all came flooding back. She had last seen Benny when he was 10 years old, 43 years ago, at the Mackenzie River mission.
After hearing Grace had turned 100, Benny and his wife decided they had to see her, no matter what. They came as far as they could by canoe, and then hitchhiked rides until they found her.
“Now I’m looking at him, married,” Grace said, close to tears as she told the story of Benny’s return.
“These kids were from troubled areas,” explained Wendy Hoekstra, “but all of them just remember being loved by her.”
Benny and his wife were one of four couples that came to see Grace this year, after learning she had turned 100.
Benny told Grace that many folks still attended the church she built, and were following God.
“I (asked) my husband many times, do you think we’re doing any good?” Grace said. “You wonder what you’ve done . . . I’ll tell you, it’s wonderful.”
Inspiration
Tim Day, a writer living now living in Montana, met Grace and became so fascinated by her character and her stories that he travelled to Coppermine with her in 2003 — on his own dime — to learn about her experience.
He said he spent days interviewing Grace and the Inuit, and has just finished a fictional book with a character based on her, including some of her real-life stories.
A Real Fine Cookie is currently in the editing process, and Day hopes it’ll be out by the end of the year.
“When most people would run in the situation, she’s willing to stay,” Day said in an interview from Montana.
“That is the type of character I surmised from Grace Priest — one that is willing to sacrifice her life. She’s kind of a Mother Teresa of the North.”
‘He’s always been with me’
Even today, Grace is still active in local churches, even speaking at engagements.
Grace regularly visits friends in the hospital and goes to the Bethany Care Centre twice a week for outpatient checkups and socialization — predictably, she attracts a pretty large crowd with her stories.
More than 100 people from all over came to her 102nd birthday — dozens more sent cards and telegrams — which she celebrated Jan. 16.
More than 100 friends, family and well-wishers attended the 102nd birthday celebration for Grace Priest, a former missionary who has come to live in Cochrane for her final years. Photo by Alan Mattson
“It’s just wonderful to know that I can meet all these people again, and I’m in my right mind,” Grace said. “I do thank God for the health and strength he gives me, and a good memory.”
But like any centenarian, Grace’s health is slowly deteriorating. Any major trips require a wheelchair, and her sight and hearing are steadily declining.
“When you get to a certain point, a year can be a long time,” Claude said.
When asked what advice she would give after 102 years of life, Grace paused for a moment — and said turn to the word of God.
“He’s the only one you can trust. Put your trust in him and he’ll never leave you or forsake you. And he’s always been with me.”
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We came to know Grace in the later years of her life, when she would come with Wendy Hoekstra to our home in Calgary, while Wendy cared for our young special needs daughter. Her peaceful presence will be missed.
Ron and Gwen Toews
July 5/2010
We lived in Yellowknife between 1969-74 as Pentecostal pastors. Some of our highlights involved visiting with Dan and Grace Priest when they came down for holiday, often on their way to England. Our children loved them, especially Grace’s exciting stories. She had such enthusiasm and was such a blessing to our northern venture.
Don and Shirley Schneider
We had the joy of meeting Dan and Grace Priest when we went up to Yellowknife on a Bible College Assignment team in 1967. I remember being taken with Grace. She was full of joy, vim, vigor and vitality.
I thank God for people like Grace, who led the way for us and were great mentors of how to serve God.
She has now received her crown in glory!
Aunt Grace will be missed. We have spent 17 years in the North because of her example. Our times as pastors in Yellowknife and Hay River were because of the stories they told of the North to us in their home in Kaslo. It is ironic that the day we were moving out of the North she passed away. It says a legacy has past and a new generation of leaders will take over. Enjoy your celebration and homecoming in the Lord. Dean and Lois Steel.
My husband and I were pastoring in the Pentecostal Mission Church in Kugluktuk for five years from 2003-2007. We will always have a heart for the people of Kugluktuk and for the North.
I have heard so many wonderful things about Dan and Grace, especially from the Inuit people who loved them as children, and remember hanging out in the mission house.
Thankyou for the story on Grace. It was very honoring.
Angela Jeske