Patience: the ability to accept delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset. Wow! I would dare say that eliminates about 75 per cent of us!

My late mother explained patience in this manner: my wife and I were secondary escorts on her behalf when she went to Edmonton for her cancer treatments and as it turned out, we were on stand-by. The trip to Yellowknife and then on to Edmonton was smooth and uneventful.

During the flights, it was my mother who was concerned with the comfort of my wife more than her own. At the hotels, she was concerned with our ability to feed ourselves and not herself. The transport between her lodging and the cancer clinic was pre-arranged, while we travelled by taxi to and from. She would try and reimburse us for the passage but we insisted we were fine.

When all the treatments were complete, we checked and double-checked flight times and we all made it to Yellowknife. As I mentioned earlier, we were on stand-by and therefore my wife and I were bumped off in Yellowknife. My mother said she would be OK as my younger brother was there with her. My mother reminded us we would be home the next day, so don't worry!

That evening, I phoned my mom's place and asked how she was. She said she was happy to be home and for us not to worry about her and to look after ourselves. The next day, we were scheduled to travel but the plane was overbooked and we were bumped again. I explained this to my mom and all she said was, "You kids need to learn to be patient!"

How often we become overwhelmed and excited when things don't go our way! As ill as my mother was, she remained calm and was constantly reassuring us that everything would work out and that we should not worry. The old adage of "you make a mountain out of a molehill" is really a true statement. We blow things out of proportion and then try and blame something or someone when it does not work out in our favour.

Unless we have experienced delay, trouble and suffering, we really cannot fully understand what patience is.

• Harry Maksagak is a Cambridge Bay resident and former underground miner at the Lupin gold mine. He has been married for 38 years and has six children and 26 grandchildren