Chapter 24
Coping With Tragedy

In October 1971 our children were nearly all through school, Michael was in Grade Ten. Mervin and Lorraine were preparing to move to Medicine Hat, Alberta as oil industry work was slack in Saskatchewan. The company he worked for asked if they would move to Alberta where work may have been more plentiful.

On the morning of October 20 Lorraine drove out from town as she and Natalie were going to Weyburn. We were sitting at the kitchen table having coffee and talking about every day topics when suddenly Natalie put her hand to her head and said, "I'm getting a headache; I don't know if I should go." The pain grew worse and she said, "I'll have to lie down for a while." She began to cry and said, "It hurts so bad, I don't think I can live." These were, I believe her last words to us. I said to Lorraine, "Let's get mom to the hospital, quickly." We helped her to the car and were at the hospital in a few minutes. Dr. Carson had been up the previous night with a patient and he didn't arrive for 15 or 20 minutes. When he arrived, he asked Natalie a few questions and she was still able to answer. The doctor called me aside and said he believed she was having a massive brain hemorrhage and doubted she could recover. He called an ambulance, which took a little time to come from Weyburn. I hurried home to change some clothes and was back at the hospital in time to go with them to Regina. The matron at the time, Arliss Swenson, went along. We left Midale at 11:00 a.m. and were in Regina at the General Hospital at 12:30. Dr. Garson had given Arliss instructions to give Natalie a sedative and she was unconscious before we left Midale. She never regained consciousness and passed away about 5:30 p.m.

Lorraine, Carol and Michael had come to Regina and we stopped at Bob and Lucille Jones house before we went home. We called a few relatives from Lucille's house and probably called some more on arrival at home. I was completely dazed and incapable of realizing that she was gone. On the way home from Regina, Lorraine asked the question, "Dad, what are we going to do without Mom?" didn't have an answer.

Robert came from Saskatoon where he was taking classes at University, Charlie came home from Swift Current, where he was working with an accounting firm. Kenneth was at his home in Midale. Natalie's funeral was held at the Midale Baptist church where she was a baptized member. The lunch served after the funeral was held in the new Christian wing which had been finished very recently. I believe a new rug had been laid in the church auditorium the preceding week. Natalie's parents didn't attend the funeral since her mother wasn't well and they felt incapable of experiencing the stress associated with the event. Her sister Laura and brother Henry attended the funeral, but her youngest sister, Dava, who was still living in Edmonton, could not attend.

The next few days, yes, even weeks were difficult to bear. I found it difficult to take an interest in anything. It was devastating for Michael, as he had been with his mother so much since he was the last in the family and still had three years of school. There could be only one consoling aspect of Natalie's sudden passing and that was no bed-ridden time of suffering because of ill health. She had only a very few hours of pain.