Reed's Illness & Death

The first child of Lew and Augusta (Mortensen) Bailey was Darwin. He got very ill and died at the age of 1 1/2. Their next child was a girl, Ramona. The second son was Reed. Shortly before he would turn 3 years old, he came down with measles but there was a whooping cough epidemic at the same time and he also got whooping cough, which turned into pneumonia. He grew increasing ill over the final five weeks of his life. Augusta writes of what she went through during this time...

“…But on Easter Sunday, April 17th at 10:30 PM our little son started into convulsions.

Oh the fear and sorrow that clutched my heart then. I ran to the telephone to call the doctor. He was inside our home within 5 minutes and assured me then that I must give in and accept the truth that our little Reed could not get better.
He was in constant convulsions from then until 10:30 AM the following morning when he passed away. Watching the suffering of that child who had become so close and dear to me in his nearly 3 years was terrible torture. He was never unconscious, but kept calling ‘Mama…Mama’. And finally I almost begged the Lord to take him out of his suffering.

I am not going to even try to describe what I passed through and suffered following his death. There are no words to express what one goes through and how much one can suffer. I had never undressed except to hurriedly bathe and change into clean clothes during the five weeks of his illness, so by now I had gotten past sleeping, with my sorrow so great I could not sleep and I was headed for a genuine break down.
I haven’t word to express the deep sorrow and anguish that possessed my every thought and action. I had reached the point now where sleep was out completely. My grief was so great that try as I would, I continued to live over and over Reed’s illness and his terrible passing.

In May, just one month following his death, our Bishop, Brother Watkins and his wife Laura were called upon to lose their beautiful little 5 year old son, Joe. Laura had often compared our two little boys and expressed a special fondness for our Reed, saying she could take him to her heart and love him as her very own.
Little Joe had had meningitis, so his funeral had to be held in their home. Bishop Watkins called me about an hour after his passing and asked if Lew and I would sing a duet and me a certain solo that they wanted.

Now if you can just imagine such a request of two people who had just buried their own little son…I told the Bishop that was asking more than I could possibly do and that I simply could not grant their wish. But they didn’t give up so easily. Laura then called and begged me to try…that we were her favorite singers, plus being very close, dear friends. The Bishop said (quote) ‘I promise if you will respond to our most urgent and desired request, that the Lord will strengthen and bless you and help you to bear your own sorrow better.’

We finally agreed to try. So, standing within 3 feet of that open casket, we did sing a duet and I sang a solo and the Lord did indeed help us. We sang without breaking down and satisfied our dear friends and responded to a request from our Bishop. Somehow, life has a way of going on, regardless of heartache and suffering.”