Anyone here have stories about the 1918 Spanish flu from

[raccoon]

parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, family friends, who lived through it?

If so, please share your stories here.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. My grandfather was a country doctor

at the time. He was just establishing his practice in a small town in Illinois when the flu hit. He told me he'd spend days treating people, getting little sleep. I think he had a horse and buggy at the time; either that or his first car. My mother was born towards the end of the breakout, which was lucky; she was very frail and her parents were afraid she wouldn't live. I think it is interesting that neither my grandfather nor any in his family got the flu. Either a result of good genes, good sanitation, or eating lots of chocolate (that's what he'd eat to keep up his energy).

[Dunvegan]

2. Chocolate! I can get behind that as an immune builder!

Thanks for your family story, ayeshahaqqiqa.

[China_cat]

3. My grandmother's brother, Edward, died from it.

He was 17, the oldest. She never got it, neither did her parents or 5 other siblings. The kids that weren't affected and their father moved out to the barn and yellow flags were planted at the end of the driveway (quarantine flags). My grandmother and her mother nursed the rest...7 other kids. All lived except Edward. Of course, he was the only one in the age group most vulnerable to the worst effects of that flu.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. My stepfather mentioned it when I was a kid.

Nothing substantial. I just remember him talking to somebody and telling them how many friends of his died. He was in the army at the time.

[katmondoo]

6. My Grandfather died of the flu in 1918 and

my mothers life turned to poverty. My Grandmother only spoke Polish, had to go to work in a factory leaving my mother, who was ten years old to care for four children, the youngest a new born. She had to leave school ( she was going to a private school at the time) and always felt inferior as a result, even though she taught herself a lot to improve on her reading, spelling and math. I never knew she left school at such a young age until much later in life. She died in 1991 at the age of 83.

[slackmaster]

5. We didn't lose anybody to the flu or to World War I

My grandparents considered themselves very fortunate. They knew a lot of older people who died of the flu.

[Greybnk48]

7. My grandmother died at age 25

she had married and moved to the US from Ireland 6 years earlier with her new husband and her three aunts (my great-aunts) as chaperones. The great-aunts stayed in Philadelphia and my grand-mother and grand-father continued west to Montana where he established a bakery in Billings. By the time the flu hit, they had four children!!!, with my father being the oldest at 5 years old. She was 5 months pregnant with her fifth child.

My dad told me the story many times before he died. She became ill on a Sunday and was dead by Wednesday evening. Wednesday afternoon she demanded that she be helped outside, practically carried into their backyard. The kids were staying at a house nearby. My father was brought to the backyard nextdoor and she said goodbye to him. She died that night. Awful.

As a mother I can never think of this story without feeling so sad.