Merry Christmas, Daisy Melick

This is a time of year for family and nostalgia. There is an old photo in our family collection, featuring Daisy Marguerite Melick at about four years of age, that I’ve always found touching. It’s a charming glimpse of Christmas Past, and very poignant because Daisy Melick did not live to see more than fourteen Christmases.

Daisy Melick sits by the Christmas tree with
her toys, notably, her new doll, "Marguerite"

Daisy Marguerite Melick was the first of two children born to Mary Xema Armstrong (9 May 1884-18 May 1908) and Floyd Beaman Melick (21 March 1880-29 July 1950). Xema was four months shy of turning 15 when Daisy was born on January 9, 1899; she had just turned 24 when she died of “Complications from bowel inflammation”. Nine-year-old Daisy and her four-year-old brother, Charles Armstrong Melick (27 May 1904-18 Apr 1959), were left in the care of their father and their doting grandparents, Alexander (1851-1930) and Nancy E. (Holloway) Armstrong (1852-1929).

Daisy Melick didn’t live long enough to generate many documents. Her birth and death are recorded in the Holloway-Armstrong Family Bible, she was enumerated in the 1900 and 1910 U.S. censuses, and there is a state-issued death certificate. However, Daisy’s short life was memorialized in a number of photographs, including the Christmas one, that show a child much loved and indulged. The photos also seem to show a robustly healthy child, contrasting sharply with the cause of death shown on Daisy’s death certificate: Myocardial insufficiency and nephritis, complicated by rheumatism. According to the attending physician, Daisy had suffered from all these conditions for “one year”. It is possible—even probable—that a year prior to her untimely death, Daisy contracted strep throat or, more likely, scarlet fever, a “scourge” of which was reported by the Times Recorder on February 28, 1913. If not properly treated, either of these illnesses can lead to rheumatic fever, an inflammation of the heart, joints, and central nervous system. Nephritis (kidney disease) is, in turn, associated with heart inflammation and/or disease.

 The death of Daisy Melick was something mentioned on numerous occasions by my grandmother and aunt. It was, for obvious reasons, a family tragedy, made more tragic by the loss of Daisy’s young mother five and a half years earlier. For years, I assumed Daisy had been a sickly child, doomed from birth to an early death.  The death certificate belies that assumption, and suggests that Daisy was healthy until the last year of her life. The photographic record preserves the memory of a hale and hearty child, much loved and well cared for.

Marguerite, the beautiful doll Daisy received one Christmas, was put away after Daisy’s death by her heart-broken grandparents. She was never seen again.

Daisy precociously posed with a book (above),
and all dressed up in her grandparents' yard (below).
Both photos were taken about 1903.

Above and below, Daisy and Charles pose for the camera, about 1906

Daisy and Charles pose with their maternal grandfather, Alex Armstrong on the porch of the Armstrong home, about 1910

Although labeled "Christmas Dinner", this photo, taken in 1908,
is more likely a photo of Daisy's birthday celebration, since Daisy
sits in the place of honor flanked by her parents and with an
array of desserts in front of her. Daisy's maternal grandparents,
her aunt Berite, and her brother on seated on the left.

Daisy dressed to the nines, about 1912

Daisy and Charles, about 1912. Daisy holds Marguerite, the Christmas doll