Web Site of the Week: On Vacation – But Here is a Story
Posted by: Christine Bulson
The last few years my mother, who is 102, writes a remembrance for her Christmas cards. This is her story for 2009.
In 1918 there was a severe epidemic of influenza. The “ditty” was : “You opened the window and in flew Enza.” We were living in an apartment in Chicago at the time and in mid-December both my sister and my mother were very ill with influenza. I was ten years old and took care of them as best I could. I did grocery shopping at the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Store. That was such a funny name. And I didn’t even like tea! Christmas was coming and Papa (he was a mining engineer and traveled a lot) would be home. I went down to the basement where we had put our tree but all the needles had fallen off. So I went to the market down the street but there were none there. The owner said all he had left were boughs and gave me a handful. I put a ribbon around them and that was our Christmas tree!
Note: 1918 Influenza: the Mother of all Pandemics is an interesting research study of the pandemic which is believed to be the same strain as H1N1.
