I almost died of Whooping Cough

Kjettestorp Norrgård

"Another thing I thought about while I’m sitting here – medical care has certainly changed in my lifetime. They used to tell me about the first time I got really sick. When I was about three months old, my siblings came down with the whooping cough. The doctor told Mama that there was no need to isolate me because I was nursing so I wouldn’t get it. If by chance I did get it, it would be so slight that they wouldn’t even notice. Well, that doctor was wrong. I got it real hard. I coughed so much that they said I didn’t take any liquid for 24 hours, and I was limp like a rag. They started to mourn me because they were sure I wouldn’t make it. But obviously, I did. It was pretty common for babies to die in those days.

Another time when I was little, I was really sick. I don’t know what was wrong with me that time. They put me in Mama’s bed. Word got around the neighborhood, I guess, and here came Farbror Fredrick from Gräsvederna. I heard him when he came in the kitchen door and he asked, “Is she still alive?”  Then he came in and stood by the bed where I lay and tears were running down his cheeks. I had never seen a man cry before then. He said, “Oh, poor child. Poor child.” Right then I thought he needed more help that I did.

Later on then, when I was bigger, we got the mumps. Everybody got it one after the other and Mama got it. She couldn’t even turn in bed, it hurt so bad. Papa had already had it when he was a kid and I got a light case, so Papa and I took care of all the rest of them.

Carl Adolf Carlsson

I remember a time when it wasn’t me who got hurt; it was Sara. Morfar had a horse named Stjärna because she had a star on her forehead. She was a peculiar horse. Morfar was the one who got along best with Stjärna. She was fine if someone sat in the wagon and held the reins but he could not tie her up to a hitching post. She would pull and fight until she pulled loose or pulled the whole thing over. Then she would just go home. If Morfar needed to go in somewhere, someone had to sit in the wagon and hold onto the reins. It didn’t matter who it was. One time I remember he had come from the store and then he was going to stop at Mama’s and have a cup of coffee. So Sara and I were supposed to sit in the wagon and hold Stjärna. Well, it was really cold out there. I don’t know if there had been some ice on the iron rod by the wagon seat or why Sara bent down and was going to lick on it. You can imagine what happened next. Her lips and her tongue got stuck and she pulled back so quick that she pulled off some skin on both! She started screaming blue murder! Out came Morfar and Mama and what did Morfar say? “Dum unge!” (“Stupid kids”)

Well, and then there’s teeth. It wasn’t at all uncommon to have most or all of your teeth gone by the time you were 60. Sometimes Morfar and Mormor would come by our place on their way to church. There was no other road to Grönede in those days. It took them at least an hour and a half to get to Kisa by horse and buggy. So sometimes, if it was a week

On the right here is Mom's 

Mormor, Anna Matilda, and

on the left is her sister whose

name I can't find right now :( 

when our family wasn’t going to church, they would pick me up or sometimes both Margaretha and I would go along with them to church. Mormor would meet a friend there and they both had black silk scarves around their heads and tied under their chins when they went to church. They both had ginger root to chew on, so they could stay awake during the long sermons. Well, neither one of them had any teeth, so that’s where Margaretha and I would come in. The whole ginger root was too big to put in the mouth at one time -- ginger root is a pretty strong spice -- so Margaretha and I would bite off small pieces for them to chew on. Then they would give us a piece of candy to get the ginger root taste out of our mouths. Both of these ladies couldn’t have been any older than in their 60s, and here I sit with pretty much all my teeth."