Margaret Wisecarver

Margaret Anna Kilongak Mesaq Wisecarver died at her daughter Vera's home in Wasilla on Feb. 5, 2006, after a lifelong struggle with a brain tumor.

She was born in Bethel on Oct. 1, 1962, and was the daughter of Bob and Annie Kilongak of Newtok. Mrs. Wisecarver grew up in a subsistence village on the Bering Sea coast in a strongly traditional family. At one point in her childhood, she lived in a traditional ene, or sodhouse.

Even as a small child, her listening and observation skills were out of the ordinary. She spoke Central Yupik’ and did not begin to learn English until she entered school. After dropping out of high school at Bethel, she met her future husband, Richard Wisecarver, when she called a taxi. The years that followed resulted in six beautiful children: Verna and Ian Wisecarver of Wasilla, Noah Wisecarver of Fairbanks, Bobbi Jean Wisecarver of Sonora, Calif., and Jaime Wisecarver and Johntel Barraclough of Albuquerque, N.M.

After Mrs. Wisecarver encouraged and helped her husband complete his university degrees, she decided that despite having only a GED and low test scores, that she would pursue a bachelor's degree in psychology. She graduated from the University of Alaska at Anchorage in 1996. In 1998, she found her dream job with Southcentral in Anchorage, when she became a patient advocate at the Alaska Native Service Hospital in Anchorage. She was a dynamo who pursued the best possible care for all the patients of that hospital, but nothing gave her greater joy than assisting all the elders of all the Alaska tribes.

Whenever the elders and staff at ANMC saw her during the last two years of her treatment, they would ask, &#8220Where have you been,” and ”Are you back here to help us?” She always had a smile for patients and showed them the greatest respect. She used all of her vast traditional and modern knowledge to give extremely effective cross-cultural training to ANMC staff, translate legal and medical documents from English into Central Yupik’ for ANMC, and train her fellow advocates in the use of computers and medical English.

Mrs. Wisecarver was also an accomplished artist and painted many carved wooden artifacts, such as snow goggles and Qayaq paddles with traditional Yupik figures. She was also a busy activist in the various Wasilla AA groups.

Her family wrote, &#8220She offered her care, love, guidance to her children, spouse and various nieces and nephews. She had the respect and love of all her nine siblings. She also spent untold hours caring for her mother during her years of severe illness. She could chastise the ones she loved and then defend them with her whole being. She took responsibility of her family and friends very seriously. If you wanted her opinion, you had better get ready for the truth. If you asked for her help, well, look out, you had better roll up your sleeves, because her idea of helping did not include you sitting back while she did all the work. Margaret has found her peace in the house of God and will be waiting for all of us when we, too, follow the path to the next world. God bless her.”

Mrs. Wisecarver will be missed by all of her family and friends. She was preceded in death by her mother and father; uncles, John, Charley and Tom; five aunts; three sisters, Anastasia, Verna, and Bernadette, and nephew, Jeremy. She leaves behind her six children and two grandchildren, Angelica and Leah, Erin Wise; their father and her stepdaughter, Sarah, and two stepgrandchildren, Tomas and Zoe, all of Wasilla.

She also leaves behind four sisters, Theresa, Bernice, Sally and Mollie, and five brothers, Charlie, Alexie, Brian, Bobbi, and Thomas and a great many nieces and nephews and several greatnieces and nephews living in Newtok, Toksook Bay, Emmonak and Tuntuliak.