Cape Breton's Magazine

about things, understanding about things and sickness and all that. I think it was when he had the pneumonia, she put a cur? tain around his bed. And she was taking , the hot cinders out of the stove in a pan, she was putting them in to make the air dry and warm, putting it in with him there so there wouldn't be moisture, so his lungs wouldn't become more congested. Frank: I was so sick that my feet, they'd turn blue. Margaret: There was a doctor came here. And there was another boy, Dan Angus Kerr's brother, he was sick too. They oper? ated on him in the house, right down at John Angus Kerr's--they operated on him for appendix, right there on the table. And when the doctor was through he said, "This fellow is all right. I wish I could say the same about the fellow up at Alex MacRae's." Frank was sick! Those were the things they had to contend with. Nobody went to the hospital to have a ba- by--that was unheard of. All my children were bom in the house. But I was lucky I had a doctor and a nurse. But in those days, they had nobody but a granny. No doc? tor or nurse, just a granny. They never seemed to have complications, you know. It was strange, you know. I never recall them telling the story about how the baby died because there was no attending physician or nurse or anything. And there was one story that Frank's moth? er used to tell us. There was a relative of his father's lived down in Cape North. And this morning she got up in the morning and she decided she was going to come out here to North River to visit them. Started from Cape North walking. And she got here late in the evening. Imagine! From Cape North! (That would be 62 miles.) And she wasn't in very long when Frank's mother told her that there was a young woman down the road here about a mile, and she was ex? pecting a baby. And she said, "They've been there all day, and the baby hasn't come yet, and it looks as if they're going to lose the mother. She just can't deliv? er." "Oh," she said, "we'll have to go there right away. Let's go down to see." So Frank's mother and herself got ready, and they went down to the house down the road. She went in there where all the neighbours were gathered in there waiting. just expecting the mother to pass out any time. And this old lady, she went in the room. There were several people in the room with the mother, and she said to them, "Now, I want every one of you to go out of the room. But I want two good strong men to stay." So there were two of the men stayed, and the rest went out. And she said to them, "You get her up on her feet and start making her walk. And make her walk up and down." And they started doing that back and forth. And by gosh, didn't the baby deliver? She delivered the baby, and she saved the mother's life, she saved the baby's life. And she was saying, "I knew," she said, "that there was something giving speed to my feet when I was coming from Cape North. It was almost as if I was on wings." And she was here in time to deliver that baby and save the mother's life. After walking from Cape North. She was an Urquhart. Elly Urquhart. (How long after your own children were bom did you stay in bed?) Oh, maybe a week. Oh, you were allowed to get up, you ' Cape Breton Health Unit Asks You to Stay a Winner-Don't Smoke!" For information about harmful effects on yourself, your friends, and your baby, contact your local Health Unit office: ARICHAT BADDECK CHETICAMP GLACE BAY INVERNESS MARGAREE NEIL'S HARBOUR 226-2944 295-2159 224-2410 849-4566 258-21 OOext. 134 248-2198 336-2295 NEW WATERFORD PORT HAWKESBURY PORT HOOD ST PETERS SYDNEY SYDNEY MINES 862-2204 625-1693 787-3302 535-2026 564-4447 736-6245 • Dental Health Services • Public Health Inspection • Prenatal Classes • Health Education • Nutrition Infonnation Nova Scotia Department of Health (75)