He told her he loved her and to wish their daughter happy birthday.

"And then he said, 'I'm so tired I have to go and I want to go to sleep.'"

The next morning Butts was making birthday blueberry pancakes for Haley when she got a call from a hospital staff member telling her to get there as fast as she could.

When she arrived doctors told her Kuehner had slipped into a coma after a cardiac arrest.

He never woke up.

The cartoonist with a goofy "South Park style," sense of humour who loved to play pranks like putting hot sauce in people's food without telling them, was dead at 33.

It's extremely rare for someone to die from chickenpox but it does happen.

A vaccine is available and is free for kids in Ontario.

Speaking publicly about her husband's death for the first time, Butts' message is simple: get that needle.

"It was so rare that at first even the doctors weren't sure exactly what they were dealing with," said Butts of her husband's case.

Kuehner, known as Scott-O to his friends and family, was otherwise healthy.

"Even the immunologists that they brought in on his case had never seen anything like this," Butts said.

Haley, now 16, said people often don't believe her when she tells them her dad died of chickenpox.

The high school student still struggles with feelings of guilt because he caught the disease from her.

She wasn't vaccinated either.

"But I want people to know that vaccinations are a good idea, because I want them to know (chickenpox) can be dangerous," she said.

Haley spent hours watching old game shows and playing Legos with her dad, a fun-loving parent who didn't bat an eye when she covered her face with red marker as "blush."

"I'm just upset because my dad will never walk me down the aisle. He'll never have his grandchildren sit on his lap and he'll never be able to tell them about Star Wars," she said.

"He'll never be able to tell them about how Haley had an imaginary friend named Gene Rayburn (the host of the 1970s show Match Game) or how when Haley was three she wrote her name across the playroom wall and blamed Super Mario for it," added Butts.

According to data from Statistics Canada, Kuehner was one of only five people in Canada who died from chickenpox in 2009.

The disease, caused by the varicella zoster virus, usually produces relatively mild symptoms like fever, headache and fatigue, in addition to the signature "pox.'"

Janice Walters, of Wellington Dufferin Guelph Public Health, said in her 15-year career as manager for the control of infectious diseases and tuberculosis, she has been involved in the investigation of two deaths related to chickenpox locally.

"Unfortunately, it's the tragic consequence of the disease for some people and we do know that chickenpox can be more severe in adults," she said.

"This is one of the frustrations of public health because we still hear from people that they feel chickenpox is a normal childhood disease and (they want to) just let it run its course."

Chickenpox can have serious complications such as pneumonia, swelling of the brain and skin infections, including flesh eating disease.

Walters said estimates are that the odds of dying from chickenpox are about one in 100,000 for kids and as common as one in 5,000 for adults.

The disease can also cause serious problems for pregnant women who become infected.

The vaccine, delivered in two doses, has been available free for children in the province since 2004.

A recent study from July of this year found the publicly funded vaccination program has been linked to a huge drop in the number of chicken pox cases.

In 2014 the chickenpox vaccine became mandatory for kids attending school in Ontario.

After Kuehner died Amanda and Haley had to bag up his clothes, pillows and blankets and burn them. The health unit was worried that the chickenpox might have been some kind of super bug, although it turned out not to be.

But they have memories.

Like when he took Haley trick or treating in a goblin mask and pretended to be a kid to see who could get the most candy.

Or when they made "Spacos," a combination of spaghetti and tacos, while experimenting in the kitchen.

Butts and her daughter hope that by sharing their story they encourage people to get vaccinated for chickenpox and other preventable diseases.

"I've heard so many people say, 'we don't want to get our kids vaccinated because it can cause autism,'" Butts said.

In 1998 a study falsely linked the Measles, Mumps Rubella (MMR) childhood vaccine to autism. The study was later found to be completely bogus and its author was discredited.

There is no scientific evidence of any link between vaccines and autism. But the legacy of the study, fueled by celebrity anti-vaxers such as Jenny McCarthy, persists.

For people like Butts, the consequences of skipping a vaccination are all too real.

"If you know a grown up who hasn't had chickenpox or one of these other child hood diseases that you think is simple and it's not going to do any harm, don't take the risk, get the vaccination," Butts said.

"If Scott had been vaccinated, chances are he would be alive now."

mwarren@guelphmercury.com