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Marcia Marie Ferguson 1957 - 1969 © 1969 Tom Ferguson
My sister Marcia died of heart complications at 12 years. I had
been gone since she was five so wasn't as close as the rest of the
family but it was still quite a blow. I wrote a song for her and threw
it away, the only trace of it being a recording I made for her when we
knew she was dying. I used the line from hard-hearted Hanna,
"the meanest girl in town" and my Mom told me she asked if I thought
she was mean. It was heartbreaking... I drove up to see her when I got
the call and that night went in her room a week or so before the event
and stood there watching her sleep. Her heart was visible beating right
through her pajamas. When my Mom died in 2005 the painting kind of
disappeared but recently I asked siblings about it and it turns out my
brother has it in his family and they sent me the photo. The death of a
child is so devastating. A family friend in Michigan could not speak of
the death of her young son without crying, more than 80 years after the
incident.
