Most people have known grief, but few have known it like the Johnston family. In a 15-hour stretch the family’s matriarch suddenly lost her husband and her son in two unexpected and completely unrelated deaths.

The grieving widow’s daughter Denise Morrissey said: “We’ve got good family that’s been supporting us. My phone’s been ringing off the hook, my mum’s phone’s been ringing off the hook. We’ve had relatives and friends coming by. And everybody’s saying the same thing: ‘We don’t know what to say’.”

It’s hard to find the right words of condolence because in this case ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ doesn’t seem like enough.

On the last day of February, Gladwin Johnston, 77, was crossing South Road in Warwick not far from his home when a motorcyclist ran into him.

Mr. Johnston remained conscious the whole time, even tried to stand up at one point. But with a broken hip the injury was serious. He was taken to hospital. Doctors inserted a plate to help put the hip back together.

Things seemed to go well — maybe too well.

Ms Morrissey said: “At first he kept getting up. Right from the beginning he kept getting out of the bed and they didn’t want him to be doing that.”

On the 21st day at the hospital Mr. Johnson was due for a seemingly simple surgical procedure to insert a drip. And even before the light anaesthetic could take hold, he suffered a cardiac arrest. It was fatal.

Mr. Johnson’s daughter and wife were at the hospital at the time waiting for him to come out of surgery, when the cell phone rang.

It was the doctor and he had the worst possible news — Mr. Johnston was the sixth road traffic fatality of 2007.

That call came at 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday and there was more bad news for the Johnston family on the following morning.

Ms Morrissey’s brother Calvin Johnston, 58, was at home feeling under the weather. It wasn’t an unusual situation considering his cancer diagnosis some time back, but the disease still allowed him to keep a job and lead a normal life.

But this day wasn’t normal. Mr. Johnston was violently ill. So his sister, who lives upstairs, decided to call an ambulance at around 8 a.m.

Ms Morrissey said: “By the time we called the ambulance and I came down he was laying there in a non-responsive state — just as quick as that.

“The ambulance came and I knew it wasn’t too good because they checked and they felt around and they pumped and pumped on his chest. And I think when he left here he was already dead.”

Mrs. Marion Johnson, 78, was at home with her son at the time of his death. She told The Royal Gazette in a meeting at her home on Sunday: “I can still see him there.”

Mrs. Johnson has lived in her home on Upland Lane in Warwick for 55 years. For just about every one of those days, her husband was with her. And if not him, her son was no farther away than the other room. And then suddenly, shockingly, she lost them both in less than 24 hours.

The Johnstons were husband and wife for 57 years. The retired couple helped to take care of each other — she recently suffered a stroke, he was dealing with Parkinson’s disease. Still, they teamed up and held onto their independence. Every morning Gladwin Johnson would walk to the gas station down the street to buy a newspaper. You could set your watch by it.

On the afternoon of February 28, he was making a second trip to the gas station. He was off to get his bride a Cadbury chocolate bar — her favourite.

Mrs. Johnston said laughingly: “I like the chocolates and he likes the cigarettes.”

It was on the way back from the gas station, with the chocolate in his hand, that Mr. Johnston was run over.

The 36-year-old man on the motorcycle expressed his sorrow to the family in the days immediately following the crash. He was heartbroken that he would accidentally injure a senior citizen. And according to Ms Morrissey, the man’s an expatriate worker who recently flew home for an extended vacation. He probably won’t get the news until he returns. He’s expected back sometime this week.

Ms Morrissey said: “It’s going to be hard for him.”

It’s the kind of occasion that has been hard on everyone that knows the Johnstons.

And although she’s a woman of few words, it must be toughest on Mrs. Johnston who seems to have lost so much in a small amount of time — a husband and son she passed in the hallways of her home everyday just aren’t there anymore. Her nearest family member now is Ms Morrissey, the daughter who lives upstairs. Even though she’s just a few steps away the loving daughter readily admits: “My mum’s now here all alone.”* Gladwin Johnston and Calvin Johnston will be laid to rest in one ceremony on Friday, March 30th at 3 p.m. at the St. John’s Church in Pembroke