Varick John Doig Jr. N.J .; Michael born in March 1966. - (Karen) of John enjoyed traveling Varick John Doig Jr. East Helena; with his family, coaching passed away peacefully on Linda (Cor­ baseball, fishing and camp­ March 7, 2008, with his imme­ nelius) ing. After his retirement he diate family by his side. John Valkenburg enjoyed volunteer work was the firstborn of Blanche of Billings; with the Montana Talking Claire White and Varick John Barbara Books Library. The U.S. Doig Sr. on Nov. 10, 1930, in (Elden) Navy and the telephone Townsend. He joined the U.S. Doig Jr. Sheridan of company were paramount Navy in November 1947 and Helena; in his life, and he remi­ served until November 1951. Bonni Kirby nisced frequently about the After an honorable discharge of Helena; impact it made in his life. he joined the Montana special com­ John's special companion, National Guard. panion of 14 Rosie, was a shining light in He was married to Caryl years, Rose his life after Caryl's pass­ Benetta Thronson at St. Marie Lind­ ing. He always lived his life John's Lutheran Church on strom in the manner be was raised Aug. 28, 1952. He started (Rosie); 11 - the only help for a man is working for Mountain grandchil­ at the end of his arm. States Telephone and Tele­ Doig Jr. dren and In lieu of flowers, the graph Company in February several family request memorials 1952 and retired 40 years to great-grandchildren. sent to St. Peter's Cancer the day from U.S. West as John and Caryl were mar­ Treatment Center, 2475 an auditor. ried for 39 years before Broadway, Helena, MT John was preceded in Caryl passed away in 1992. 59601. Hagler-Anderson death by his father, Varick, John and Caryl had five chil­ Mortuary was entrusted and wife, Caryl. He is sw·­ dren: Robert Eugene, born with local arrangements. vived by bis mother, in July 1953; Michael Den­ We wish Dad fair seas Blanche Doig; sister, Patricia nis, born in June 1954; Linda and following winds on his Apland; brother, Marvin Caryl, born in September final tour. (Julie) Doig; bis children, 1955; Barbara Marie, born in Express condolences at Robert (Mariellen) of Brick, March 1958; and Bonni Jon, www.legaey.wm!HelenalR ERIC FORSMAN C ARLSON 9792 EDMONDS WAY, PMS #419 EDMONDS, WASHINGTON 98020-5940 425-67()-8928 [email protected] June 9th, 2006 Mr. Ivan Doig For Hand Delivery at The University Bookstore reading Dear Mr. Doig, Please forgive my intruding on your privacy. I am writing to briefly relate the circumstances of my late wife's passing because they may be pertinent to those of your mother's passing, and might therefore be information you might wish to have. I have loved your writing since my own mother, who was born and raised in the Helena Valley as a third generation Montanan, gave me a signed first edition "from my house of sky to yours" in 1978. I also have a signed first edition of Heart Earth from 1993. I had the privilege of taking classes from both Wallace Stegner and Yvor Wmters as an undergraduate at Stanford, and I know that you are a wonderful writer. Jenny Gayle McLauchlan Carlson passed away at home about 4:00 in the morning on March 14th, 1998. She was almost 53. Her death was from complications caused over a period of years by Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. Alpha-1 is always fatal, sooner or later. It is about as common as cystic fibrosis, yet it is very underdiagnosed, perhaps because its symptoms can be insidious. It is often diagnosed as asthma, or emphysema, or "emphysema/asthma." As I understand it, alpha-1 antitrypsin is an enzyme produced in the liver that is necessary for the shutting down of the body's immune response to pollution in the lungs. Without it, the body slowly devours one's lungs from the bottom up. This can be clearly seen on x-rays: emphysema destroys lungs from the top down, alpha-1 from the bottom up. Theorists postulate that alpha-1 began in Sweden and spread to the other Scandinavian countries, across and around the Baltic, and to Scotland and Ireland. Page 1of3 My Jenny was the daughter of the children of immigrants. Her mother was 100% Norwegian, from Astoria, and her father was 100% Scottish, from Vancouver Island. Her father, Duncan, graduated from the University of Washington and then from the University of Oregon Medical School where he met his Marie, who was a nurse. After serving in the Army Medical Corps, Duncan completed his training at the Menninger Clinic and became a distinguished psychiatrist in Portland. Duncan and Marie had four daughters, but neither of them knew that each was a carrier of Alpha-t. Jenny and I were married in 1979, when she was almost 34. From that time, I thought that she became shorter of breath than she should have. She also complained about the effects of the fumes from ordinary household cleaners, such as Comet cleanser. However, we remained fairly active. On Labor Day weekend of 1984, we climbed Mt. Pilchuck. In June of 1985, though, she could hardly climb the basement stairs from the laundry room. I took her to a Yale trained internist who diagnosed "emphysema/asthma," and subsequently, sometimes, just "asthma." Four years later a friend in pediatric nursing suggested that Jenny might have Alpha-1, but her doctor refused to test her. So she went to an allergist, in search of asthma inhalers and a blood test. The test confirmed Alpha-t. Jenny was contacted by a research group in Portland who wanted her to join a study, and they mentioned that death followed an average of seven years after "severe onset." Jenny declined to participate in the study and became the patient of a pulmonologist, the very diligent and compassionate Dr. Embra A. Roper of The Polyclinic in Seattle. Her disease progressed somewhat slowly, but she went on chronic oxygen early in January of 1996 and started to noticeably decline in November of 1997, when she sustained a spontaneous tear of her left Achilles tendon. She passed less than three months later, in great faith, looking forward to her release from mortality. Earlier in the decade, Jenny's mother consigned to her some documents from her father's side of the family. Among them, we found the death certificate for her paternal grandmother, Jenny Aird McLauchlan. Grandmother Jenny had not been able to breathe well in the mill town air of Chemainus, so she returned to her native Edinburgh where she died in her early thirties. So she went from the pollution of wood smoke back to that of coal smoke. The death certificate listed the cause as "dementia." We had learned earlier that dementia has been an historic diagnosis for alphas because no one would believe them when they said they couldn't breathe. Some were even consigned to asylums before they died. Their bronchia and lungs appeared intact, but their lungs were gone from the bottom up. My Jenny had less then 20% of her lung capacity when she passed. Page2 of3 One other piece of serendipity: Jenny was a classmate of Craig Lesley at Whitman College, Class of 1967. If this letter is an unwelcome intrusion, please forgive me. One day, a few years after Jenny's death, my loss reminded me of yours, and I have thought ever since that I should communicate this information to you. I am doing so entirely out of respect for you and your family. Very highest regards, Eric Forsman Carlson Page3 of3 26 Nov. '04 Dear Elspeth Johnson-- your letter was a delight, not least because I am enthralled to have a relative named Elspeth. Several years ago I was sent on a cultural exchange tour, and the first three women my wife and I met in New Zealand, in connection with my tour of libraries etc., were all Elspeths. We began to wonder if it was some kind of New Zealand joke. All three of them were splendid to us, and I can now think of you as an honorary member of their ranks. There is also a Queensland connection. My uncle, Paul Ringer, stayed on and married in Rockhampton after his World War II service there. He had a good knack with language, and when I was working on This House of Sky here would come his reminiscences of Montana spiced, if you'll excuse the phrase, with sayings such as "my arthritis is giving me curry" and "you're not wrong about that." As to Brechin: your scholarly intuition, as Uncle Paul would have said, is not wrong! I did indeed base Nethermuir on that town, after rejecting Arbroath for some reason and Kerriemuir for another reason, on and on until Brechin simply felt right. Along with my notes and my wife's photos, I used census material (probably from 1891) to create a fictional version of where Angus and Rob were from, then used emigrants' letters in a University of St. Andrew's collection and material at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow for selected details of the voyage. Some, too, is sheer imagination; the ballad "Dancing at the rascal fair" I made up, to justify the book title that had occurred to me. The Doigs on this side of the Atlantic have been blessed(?) with a bit of American zealotry, in the form of a California computer whiz who became enthusiastic about our genealogy. In case you have not come across it, I'm enclosing a few pertinent pages of his version of our shared forebears.