My Little Sister

Carma Johnson  11 December 1941 to 19 December 1944

I was 12 days from my sixth birthday when Carma died.  My first memories of her was that she was sick.  Mother had powdered bananas that she would give to Carma.  Mother was in Salt Lake City at the hospital, and I believe that I stayed with Grandma Johnson.  Mother and Dad came home late one evening from being with her.  They picked me up at Grandma's.  I went out to the car and discovered some Christmas presents on the floor of the car behind the driver's seat.

I was staying with Uncle Bert when mother and dad was her beside at the hospital. This must have been a little earlier in the fall.  Uncle Bert was planting wheat.  Uncle Bert pulled the drill with a tractor; and Howard and I were riding on the grain drill.  Howard reached behind him and caught some wheat falling from the grain drill and began to eat it.  I did the same thing but my finger got caught in the turning seeding shaft and a small part of my finger and finger nail were pulled off.  They put some Vaseline on it and dressed it.  We later went out in the field looking for the tip of my finger.  It was not very much.  We didn't find it and my pointer finger and finger nail still shows the scare.

I remember going to the funeral which must have been a few days before Christmas, and touching Carma's hand and feeling how cold it was.  At the cemetery they didn't have a vault, but mixed some concrete and enclosed the casket with concrete.