My grandmother and the 1918 flu

[Grace&Violets]

My grandmother was born in January 1918, so she was very little when the flu of 1918 hit North Dakota. Both her and her dad caught the flu. Her mother was trained by her own mother in medical training and most of the people within 30 miles relied on her, since there wasn't a doctor closer than that. My great-grandmother was present for most of the births in her area and tended to broken bones, illnesses and such. Well, when the flu hit, both my great-grandfather and my grandmother were hit hard. In fact, both of them were thought to be dead and placed in the barn, since it was winter and the ground was frozen. My grandmother was placed on my grandfather's chest. They were to be buried in the spring. My grandmother's sister was very sad and stayed in the barn a while after the rest of the family had gone back to the house. As she was starting to leave, she thought she saw something move. She turned down the sheet that was covering them and saw my grandmother move, just so slightly. She ran and got my great-grandmother and the rest of the kids. (Gram was the youngest of 13). It turns out that NEITHER my grandmother nor my great-grandfather had died! Their breaths were so shallow and they were so close to death, that even a trained medical person couldn't tell they were alive. (The doctor wouldn't go near anyone's house that had the flu) My grandfather lived for many more years and Gram, well, she just passed away in January. One week before her 89th birthday. I heard that there have been a lot of graves that have been excavated and claw marks from people who hadn't actually been dead are on the roof of the inside of the casket. This story has haunted me since I was a young child. Gram used to tell it to me and I would have nightmares of being buried alive.

[preparing]

That is amazing!!! My dad was born in 1910 and my mother in 1915. Neither one of them told anything about the flu. The only thing mentioned about 1918 was my mother's dad died of TB. I kind of wonder if he got the flu on top of the TB. I know he had TB because his mother, my great-grandmother died of TB later and she is the one that had taken care of him. I never heard any flu stories. I heard rationing during the war and I heard all about the depression.

[MomM]

My Dad was born in 1900, and his younger brother used to tell me stories about the flu (was so young that I didn't realize he was talking about the 1918 pandemic flu). He said he was an altar boy, and they would have one funeral - take that casket out of the church and then bring the next casket in for the next funeral, etc. An older brother died during that time from catching pnuemonia after swimming across a river while his mother and oldest sister were both in bed with the flu. They brought the casket by their bedroom door so they could see him one last time. Now, I'm wondering if the pneumonia was a complication of the flu or maybe he also had the flu. All of that generation of Dad's family are gone, so I can't ask anyone.

[Centexan]

I also think my dad had the 1918 flu. He was born in 1899 and would have been about 20 at the time. I have seen early pictures of him -- he had much curly hair -- but later was very balding. My mom said that he had almost died of "double-pneumonia" and that because he had such high fever he lost a lot of his hair. They never referred to it as the flu, but it sure makes me think that it might have been -- the timing was right (they were country people and may not have even had a doctor and not known of the term flu.