1918 flu - in their words

[Cat]

Set up by the CDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - this site offers a fascinating peek into the lives and deaths of people who lived through the 1918 "Spanish Flu", or were told about it by those who did.

 

It brings the spector of pandemic flu into everyday life as we know it, and offers clues of survival through the stories. I find the "cures" in the "Where there's a will" section interesting.

 

 

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/storybook/stories/index.html

 

 

Edited to add... there's also a few stories from the 1957 pandemic flu.

 

 

 

[Darlene]

I love things like this Cat...thanks for sharing it.

[sassenach]

yes Cat thanks so much. This history can be very helpful to folks.

 

[Crazy4Canning]

I'm looking forward to the interesting read!

[michelle]

thanks cat i'll check it out.

 

[urbanforager]

I learned something this weekend during a visit to my folks. My great-uncle was born August 16th, 1918, and by the middle of September, both of my great-grandparents were sick with the flu -- flat on their backs with it. So they had a newborn and a toddler (my grandmother, born 4/8/1916) to care for. (Neither of the little ones ever caught the flu.) In fact, my GU was born out in the hallway of the hospital, leading my great-grandmother to swear that Bud was the last child she'd have in a hospital. That's why my great-aunt (who was telling me this story) was born at home.

[preparing]

My dad was born in 1910 and he would have been 8 years old and he never once mentioned the flu. His parents lived and his 3 brothers and 1 sister. Nobody on that side of the family died of the flu. My mother was born in 1915 and she would have been 3 and he never mentioned the flu. The only odd thing was her dad died in 1918 from tuberculosis. Maybe, there was a touch of the flu there, but if there was nobody in the house caught the flu. All I know was that he had tuberculosis and about 12 years later his mother died of tuberculosis. She had taken care of him while he was sick, but my mother and her sister lived in the house and never caught it.

[HippyChick]

My great great grandmother died in the 1918 flu pandemic. My great grandmother ended up helping raise her 11 siblings.

 

Thanks for posting, should be an interesting read!