Dease River was an oasis for the Huggett family. Some days they would travel 33 kilometres on the water, just Alan and Sandra and their two girls, paddling and navigating a few small rapids.
Not long after the family returned from a six-day trip last summer, Sandra developed a cough.
Soon sick days pulled her from her role as School District 57's early literacy resource teacher and on November 11 Alan took in for an emergency CAT scan.
"They discovered a lump in her lung," he said. "It had already metastasized into both lungs, ribs, liver."
Sandra was determined to fight it, Alan said.
"She didn't want to know how long, she didn't want to know what the prognosis might be. She was just interested in doing what she had to do in the moment and work on that."
He wanted to make it clear that Sandra was not a smoker and that her diagnosis made him more aware of research around radon concentrations in the city.
"I would encourage people in Prince George to get their homes tested and do mitigation if necessary," he said.
A winter 2014 study by the BC Lung Association found that nearly one in three homes tested in Prince George had radon results that exceeded Health Canada's exposure guideline for mitigation.
"We'll never know if her cancer was connected to that, but it just seems like something easy that we could do," he said.
For awhile it was under control, but she started getting nausea again in May and doctors discovered it had metastasized into the brain.
She died July 18 at age 55.
While she was sick, they relived those moments on Dease River.
"Looking at those pictures with her in the bow of the canoe and the kids, that was a highlight of the last year," said Alan, adding favourite memories with Sandra in the last year are more abstract.
"With the illness it would just be her strength, I guess, to be able to," he said trailing off. "I think she was highly aware of what was happening to her but she did her best not to let it drag her down."
Her demeanor stayed upbeat even in her last months in hospice. Alan took time off his work as a psychiatric social worker to be her full-time caregiver there.
Alan praised the hospice and cancer clinic as a "godsend," for their ability to treat her with dignity and keep her close to home.
"Even in her last minute she smiled at the nurse," Alan said.
Sandra took solace in their daughters - Lia, 12 and Kimberley, nine - while she dealt with her illness.
"That was always a pleasure for Sandra and I, especially in the last few months just to watch the girls have fun regardless of what was happening at home," he said.
"We've been totally open with them, tell it in a way in which they would understand, age-appropriate way of telling them what's happening. Every step of the way we would try to tell them in advance what might happen, prepare them."
Living in the moment, in some ways, was a shame.
"There were things that she wanted to do, that it's too bad she didn't do it sooner, like write letters to the girls. When it went into her brain she wasn't able to do that kind of thing," he said.
"We didn't foresee that at all."
Alan said he could tell the depth of her connection to the community early in her illness. Friends filled two freezers with food donations from people hoping to help.
"Just the community response has just been incredible and I think that's an indication of what kind of person Sandra was," said Alan of Sandra, a 25-year teaching veteran. "We're not overly social but definitely Sandra has made an impact on other people."
He's been overwhelmed by the community support, and could only manage stopping in once to the two-day fundraiser last week where teachers sought to repurpose Sandra's many literacy resources. He estimated, like other teachers, she spent thousands of dollars buying supplies.
Jeanette Crobar, Sandra's longtime friend and a teacher too, helped organize the event for the Huggett family and spoke at her funeral.
Crobar said Sandra was the real resource to the district, but it was so important to Sandra that her material be used for learning. Often when Crobar would stop by in the months before Sandra's death, she would have boxes of material waiting as a gift for some new teacher.
"She left behind her a legacy of resources as well," Crobar said, adding Sandra was instrumental in promoting play and music as learning aids in kindergarten classes.
"If it wasn't for her our district would not be where it is today."
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