When Johnny Ferguson Died (1948)
by Greet Macdonald as told to David Ferguson
[Hughie Ferguson's brother Johnny] died before John [Ferguson] was born [April, 1948]. I went home from Halifax because we didn’t have any money to have a baby in Halifax, and it would be cheaper at home. So I went home to Inverness in March, and Johnny Ferguson picked me up at the station because he had a car. And he drove me home.
And he said to me on the way up to Jack D’s, he said, “I have one hell of a sore throat.” He was sucking those cough drop things.
And he came in with me and he talked with Momma and Poppa for a bit, and then he left. And Momma said, “My God, how good John Ferguson looks. I wish our Freddie would put on a little weight.”
Freddie was after having stomach surgery and he was skinny as a rail.
And anyway, I don’t remember what day it was, but it was about two days later when I got up in the morning I came down stairs and Poppa said, “John Ferguson died.”
I said, “What John Ferguson?” And he said, “Hughie’s brother.” He died that suddenly.
He apparently had diphtheria.
It was wintertime, March was winter down there . He went home and got very sick that night, and the next day he was taken to the hospital.
Well, I didn’t have any way of knowing any of this, and he died the next night. And since it was diphtheria, they couldn’t have a wake. He went from the hospital to the church with a closed casket, and was buried like that.
And then they quarantined Mina and the three kids for, I don’t know, a month or something they were quarantined.
So when that happened, Sadie [Ferguson] went over. She said, “I’m going in quarantine with with Mina. She can’t stay there alone with three kids,” you know.
And Hughie used to sneak over at night. Janice said that today. She said, “I can remember Frank Chisholm coming over and passing the pie in through the window.”
John died that suddenly. It was an awful shock to the town. Mattie was upset about it, very upset. Because there was no need of anybody dying of diphtheria at that time….
You could have had a shot for it.
Like Mattie said, if he’d had the old doctor, Dr. Proudfoot, who was real good– Dr. Proudfoot would have smelled it. He would have swabbed that right away, you know… but nothing much was done.
And Dr. Ratchford was the doctor who was looking after him, and very shortly afterward, Dr. Ratchford left town and went to another town.
But it was horrible. There was no excuse for anybody dying of diphtheria. That was in the 40s, and he was only 33.
Johnny Ferguson: son of Mattie Ferguson, brother of Hughie Ferguson.
John Ferguson: son of Hughie Ferguson and Greet Macdonald.
Poppa: Jack D Macdonald, Greet’s father.
Momma: Annie Belle Rankin, Greet’s mother.
Freddie: Greet Macdonald’s brother.
Sadie: Sadie Ferguson, sister of Hughie and Johnny.
Mina: Elizabeth MacFarlane, wife of Johnny Ferguson.
Janice: daughter of Johnny Ferguson and Mina MacFarlane.
Characters • Ferguson, Hughie • Ferguson, John • Ferguson, Johnny • Ferguson, Mattie • Ferguson, Sadie • Macdonald, Freddie • Macdonald, Greet • Macdonald, Jack D • Rankin, Annie Belle • Stories • Storytellers • told by Greet Macdonald | Dave Ferguson February 20, 2006
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By Rose Abril, February 24, 2006 @ 6:02 pm
Is Uncle John
By Dave Ferguson, February 24, 2006 @ 6:06 pm
Rose:
Yes, your uncle John was named for his uncle Johnny, my dad’s brother. As you see from this story, my uncle Johnny died in March, 1948; my brother John was born April 5, 1948.
Dad’s brother Roddie also named one of his sons John. So did his sister Mary (Mary Ferguson, married Jim Somers).
By Rose Abril, February 24, 2006 @ 6:34 pm
That is very cool, I never knew that.