1918 Flu Pandemic

Marie5656

Marie5656

Well-known Member
Location
Batavia, NY
Does anyone have family who lived through the flu pandemic of 1918? My cousin and I were talking about it, as our grandparents and family were around then. I am including an old newspaper clipping from October 1918, about my dad being released from the hospital, after recovering from the flu. Also, this picture is of my grandparents and their family during that time. My dad is the boy standing between my grandparents. My grandmother was expecting my uncle, my cousin's dad.

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My grandparents, too, though both sets of them had farms in very rural areas. I doubt they had much exposure to the virus itself, as travel was almost nil in that time and area and none of their children were old enough to be coming back from the war. I've never heard any family stories about it, and none of their immediately. There were plenty of family stories about other diseases, but none about that flu.
 

1918 ... my grandparents had a farm in the country, and had 5 children by 1918. My mother was 5 years old. They had 12 children in all, and didn't lose any to disease or the flu. One of the girls's did get polio some years later (in the 30's) and had to use crutches the rest of her life.
None of them are alive today.
 
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My mom and dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, a lot of old people I knew when I was a kid. I remember listening to a guy telling my dad that he felt the chills come on so he drank a quart jar of moonshine and believed it was what kept him alive.
 
My father survived that pandemic as a young boy. I've often reflected that had he not, I wouldn't be here. The existence of each and every one of us is really a miracle of sorts, floated on the tides of history...
 
Marie5656 said:
Does anyone have family who lived through the flu pandemic of 1918? My cousin and I were talking about it, as our grandparents and family were around then. I am including an old newspaper clipping from October 1918, about my dad being released from the hospital, after recovering from the flu. Also, this picture is of my grandparents and their family during that time. My dad is the boy standing between my grandparents. My grandmother was expecting my uncle, my cousin's dad.

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I live for vintage photographs! What an outstanding photo, Marie! Thank you so kindly for sharing. :)
 
Without modern medical and communcations technology we enjoy today this virus would wipe would possible wipe out more of the earth's population than the worst plagues on record.
 
Yes. My grandmother died from it. Only in her 20's. My father wasn't supposed to make it through the night. I believe he was 7. I didn't read the history of that whole pandemic until everything that happened recently with Covid19. It was so interesting to read about people back then being aware of social distancing and wearing masks. Of course, by the time they were aware of some of the precautions to take, it had already run rampant.
 
A family "secret" was that my paternal grandfather had been married and had a child before he was married to my grandmother. His first wife and child were both victims of the 1918 flu pandemic. He was a WW1 vet and had served in France. He and my grandmother were married a couple of years later.
 

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