Not feeling Well?

I have noticed many in J-land sick with cold and flu-like symtoms this winter season. Well grab and chair and listen to the story I am about to tell you. Then go take some asprin and cough medicine, you'll feel better.

In 10 months between 9/1918 and 6/1919, 675,000 Americans died of influenza. Compare that to the number of Americans killed in WWI, II, Korea and Vietnam combined and you will see that this flu epidemic was far more deadly. We had previous flu epidecmics but never at such a severe cost in human life.

It was nicknamed the Spanish Flu. Europe recognized this as a major epidemic before the United States did. It first appeared in Eupore via British troops and in German forces, then the French and finally Spanish troops. It affected 8 million in Europe. We now realize that it probably started on a millitary base in Kansas and spread abroad by our troops. The total death rate (world wide was somewhere between 20 and 40 million.

If you closely examine our living conditions in 1918 and public awareness you understand how this was spread so quickly. Large public gatherings in support of the war brought masses of people together to breathe, cough and sneeze on each other. Plus our troops that came home who were sick and taken care of by their families helped the spread of influenza. It took over 800,000 lives in America and it claimed 1/5 of the worlds population.

People were struck on the street and died rapid deaths. One anecdote shared in 1918 was about 4 women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight 3 of the women died from the flu. Healthy people got the flu and died within hours. Physicians were helpless against the powerful agent of this flu.

In late 1918 children would skip rope to this rhyme:

I had a little bird, It's name was Enza. I opened the window,

and in-flu-enza.

Now I want to transport you to Valentine's Day in 1918. That is the day my father was born. He was the 9th child born to my grandmother, Nora, in the backwoods, a holler, in Kentucky. They had little in life, except an abundance of children.

By November 1918, Nora had quickly fallen ill. My father was 9 months old and I can imagine my Grandmother Nora's life rapidly leaving as she watched the 9 children, with her baby, my father, close by. The physical and mental agony of departing this earth, leaving helpless children behind, in the middle of a "holler" must have been unbareable. Perhaps death was a relief. Her grave, I understand, is on a hillside, unmarked..... but never forgotten.

This was my Fathers entry into life......his mother dead when he was only 9 months old, before he could walk, talk or know the complexities of his life that lay ahead............

More tomorrow.