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September 21, 2001
Northern nurse missing after trade centre attack
Christine Egan touched
many lives in Nunavut
MIRIAM HILL
Nunatsiaq News
Chris
Egan, in a 1985 photo taken in Coral Harbour.
(PHOTO COURTESY OF LORRAINE BRANDSON)
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IQALUIT — A well-known nurse who spent years in the Arctic
is missing following last week’s terrorist attack in New
York.
Christine Egan, 55, was visiting her brother, a broker, on the
105th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center when
a hijacked airplane smashed into the building, causing it to implode.
The siblings were apparently separated after the crash. Egan’s
brother used a cell phone to call his wife from an elevator, and
then all communication was lost. Egan and her brother have not
been heard from since.
Originally from Manchester, England, Egan worked for more than
20 years as a nurse in Pond Inlet, Coral Harbour, Chesterfield
Inlet and Rankin Inlet before retiring last year. She is a resident
of Winnipeg and recently began a job with the Manitoba health
ministry.
In 1999, Egan completed a doctoral thesis titled “Inuit
Women’s Perception of Pollution.”
Potogok Adamie, of Coral Harbour, met Egan in 1983 when she was
a clerk interpreter at the health centre and Egan was a nurse.
They worked together for three years and have kept in touch ever
since.
“I know that when the building collapsed she was probably
helping somebody to get down the stairwell, or to get to the elevator.”
— Marion Love, close friend of Chris Egan
Adamie said she watched the trade centre towers topple on TV.
Then, a few hours later, she received a call from a nurse in the
community asking if Adamie knew that Egan was in New York City
visiting her brother.
Adamie then called a mutual friend in Winnipeg who verified that
Egan was missing.
“After I had the call from the nurse in charge here, I was
alone. I was just upset,” she said. She’s been calling
Winnipeg regularly for updates.
“I’m still trying to have hope, but watching the news
saying that they couldn’t find anybody alive — I mean,
the building collapsed. It was so shocking,” she said.
thers in Coral are concerned for Egan’s wellbeing, too.
Adamie went on the local radio station to announce that Egan
is missing and to ask for prayers in support of Egan’s family
and friends.
Egan, Adamie said, has known her 16-year-old daughter since she
was born.
“We used to make plans for her growing up. She was going
to be a nurse and she was going to stay at Chris’ house when
she goes to university,” she said. “I have never met
her brother and sister, but I feel I know them because Chris used
to talk about them a lot.” Egan’s parents are both deceased.
Adamie has fond memories of going camping with Egan.
“She loves to eat traditional food such as char and Canada
geese. She always would want me to cook geese for her because
I put dumpling and these kinds of things with it,” she said.
“These are the happy memories.”
Marion Love, now working for the Department of Health in Iqaluit,
first met Egan in 1986 in Coral Harbour, where Egan was working
as a nurse.
“She was a very kind, very giving woman. Nothing was insurmountable.
She had such a love for the North and for the people,” Love
said. “She always was happy. No matter how bad things were,
she was always happy.”
Egan came to Iqaluit in 1968, Love recalls, and visited the community
on April 1, 1999.
The news that Egan is missing has devastated Love.
“I know that when the building collapsed she was probably
helping somebody to get down the stairwell, or to get to the elevator.
I know she would have been doing that. She would have put others’
safety ahead of hers,” she said, her voice shaking.
Adamie said she’s still waiting and holding out hope for
good news.
“I watch the TV news all the time just hoping to see her
face come up, but of course with all those people you can’t,”
she said, sighing.
“It’s been a week now and still no word. It’s
very sad.”
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