The Story of Ruth Margaret Coppin is a sad one. Born on January 31, 1869, she married John Johnson of Bear Cove on May 7 1890 at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Halifax. John and Ruth had one child, that of Kathleen Johnson, born in 1899.

This is where the story becomes sad. John Johnson came down with consumption and died sometime in the middle of 1898. When he died Ruth was pregnant with Kathleen, but after giving birth to Kathleen and from being alone and not with John, she died shortly after the birth.  Story goes in my family that she died of a broken heart, and the birth of Kathleen was a hard birth and those two factors combined killed Ruth.

Ruth died on February 20 1899, in Halifax. The day of Ruth's death a notice was put in the newspaper to announce that she had died. Family in Canning, Kings county sent a letter to say that they were sorry to hear of her death. This letter from Ruth's cousin Annie Forbes, daughter of James and Jane Coppin reads as follows:

Dear Aunt Bess-

    We were surprised and very sorry to see Ruth's name among the death notices in to-days paper.
Has she been sick long or did she die when her little daughter was born? The last time I saw her I had my baby with me she said she wished she had one like that and it seems too hard she had to go and leave her.
    It seems to me you have almost more than your share of troubles in this world. We have all been laid up with Grippe. I was almost afraid father was not going to get better, but he is getting around slowly now.
    Hoping you are all fairly well with much sympathy from us all. If you have time write one about Ruth.
        Yours with love

Annie Forbes

Canning, N.S.
21st February 1899

The almost funny thing about this letter is that only a few months later in July of 1899 her father died of that infection he had. But also is sheds some light on to how close the two COPPIN families were, and that they did know of each other at this time, even though one generation later they had lost contact.

Ruth's daughter Kathleen was born in January of 1899, but her life was just as sad as her mothers.

Kathleen Johnson was born around the time of her mothers death in 1899. Due to the fact that she was now an orphan, she moved in with her aunts Kate and Elizabeth on and off from her birth till she died in 1915. The above picture is the only picture we have of Kathleen, and she looks sad and rather depressed in it. Kathleen died on February 24, 1915 of TB, at the age of 16