Throughout the spring and early summer of 1923, while Ada was learning to trap and hunt and build boats, she was also serving as the full-time caregiver for Lorne Knight, who was dying by degrees from scurvy.

Scurvy’s progression is slow and relentless.

The vitamin C that the human body requires comes from fresh food, particularly fresh meat and plant material.

In an Arctic winter, with limited access to fresh game and no plant foods available, the body’s vitamin C reserves deplete over months.

The first symptoms — fatigue, joint pain, easy bruising — are easy to attribute to other causes.

But as the deficiency deepens, the body’s ability to maintain connective tissue fails.