David Tulugak, of Rankin Inlet, remembers all too vividly his days working on information technology for the Government of Nunavut and having to deal with folks who lost and/or forgot their passwords time and time again.
Tulugak said it happened a lot more than people might think.
And, he said, reconnecting people or teams to their passwords can also be a lot more daunting than people might think.
"I would always try to reset their passwords from our end (in the 'lab'), but some of them had ended up in a hopeless situation and I would have to, literally, go to their office and work from square one with them to get them back on track," said Tulugak. "I'm glad to be retired now and away from all of that today."
Now 60, Tulugak said he literally has not touched a computer since he suffered a stroke on Oct. 2, 2017, and lost the use of one hand.
He said life can change for a person in the blink of an eye and things you took for granted are gone forever.
"When I suffered the stroke, I decided not to even so much as look at a computer ever again, let alone work on one again.
"I get tired really easily now since I had the stroke and just decided I was done with computers and that was all there was to it. I'm good with my decision and I don't miss working with computers at all. Not one bit.
"I use my phone or my iPad for the internet. The only thing I miss from my previous life is travelling to other communities, especially Arviat and Baker Lake. It felt good when I was able to help someone overcome a problem and get them back to 100 per cent again.
"They were, pretty much, always appreciative of my efforts, and, you know, that always made me feel happy inside."
These days Tulugak spends most of his time keeping up with his 14 grandkids. He said he loves watching cartoons with his grandkids and spending as much time with them as he possibly can.
He said one thing that he is not, with 14 grandkids, is bored.
"Any free time that I might have after spending a lot of my time with the grandkids, I still like to be on Facebook and I still like to watch movies like spaghetti westerns and spy shows like Mission Impossible.
"I'm enjoying retirement as much as I can and I still look forward to seeing what the future might bring,
"I enjoyed my work before having the stroke, but I don't miss it and I'm quite content with things the way they are now."
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