The Flu Pandemic of 1918—It Was Personal!
Think about the flu pandemic of 1918, the worst pandemic in world history — even worse than the plague, the Black Death of 1666-1667, which took some 100,000 lives. The pandemic of 1918, called the "Spanish Flu," killed at least 40,000,000 people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans. That influenza was caused by a variant of the H1N1 virus. The world has now gone through another terrible pandemic, the SARS-Covid-19 virus. Since this pandemic began in December of 2019, it has killed 3,837,000 people worldwide, far fewer than in 1918-1920. But in the United states, due to gross negligence by our Government,616,000 Americans have died. Almost the same as in 1918-1920.
"So regardless of my mother not being well, she went out there to help her sister, and that is what caused my mother to have a relapse, and she then lost her life."
What Happened?
In the fall of 1918, World War I was about to end. Americans had joined in the war, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the Germans. Then began the season of the common cold. But the influenza of that season became far more than a cold. In the two years of this flu, a fifth of the world's population was infected. Flu usually kills the elderly and young children, but this flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. It infected 28% of all Americans, and some 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic, 10 times as many as died in WW-I. Half of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe died from the flu virus and not by enemy fire. My grandmother, at age 32, was one of those killed. She left children, including my mother, who was at that time six years old.
Photo of author and his mother, Dorothy Louise Blankenship Aldridge Green (age 101 years), October 2, 2013. She died at age 102 1/2.
In the recording and transcription below (recorded in a restaurant), my mother and I discuss that terrible event. At the time of this recording, she was 101 years and 3 months. She died 13 months later.
Mom:
"Our whole family had the flu in 1918, and you are slow getting over it because it was so severe. I was six years old. My aunt died of it. My mother was not completely over it when her sister took the flu. And my sister had a big family and nobody would go in and help her. So regardless of my mother not being well, she went out there to help her sister, and that is what caused my mother to have a relapse, and she then lost her life."
Bill:
"Did they know at the time, realize how big a pandemic that was?"
Mom:
"Oh, Yes. I can remember people wouldn’t even take dishes away from your house after they brought food in. I can remember people bringing food in, one particular dish, and I can’t remember who brought it in, but there was a big crock of mashed potatoes, and it had a whole lot of butter on top of it. Now isn’t that funny that that is so plain in my memory?"
Bill:
"They would take food to you, but would not take the dishes back?"
Mom:
"Not until they sat outside for a while."
Bill:
"They wouldn’t come into the house?"
Mom:
"Oh no, Bill, it was an epidemic, nationwide."
Bill:
"Worldwide."
Mom:
"And people were dying of it, and you just didn’t go in and expose yourself to it. And see my oldest brother had it and he didn’t take care of himself and he got rheumatic fever after he had it, and heart trouble is what killed him at 32 years old."
