My grandmother (mother's mother) would sometimes tell me about when the 1918 flu hit their little farming community in Colorado. My grandmother was only five years old, and she was the only member of her family of six to not get the flu. She recalled that her mother, from her sickbed, would give her instructions about what to do to take care of the farm while everyone else was ill. They all recovered, and as soon as her mother was well enough, she went to the neighboring farm to take care of the father of ten children, who was very ill with the flu. The only remedy she had for the sick man was to put warm corn cobs on his chest. He eventually recovered. A lot of people in the community got the flu, but as far as my grandmother could remember no one died, but then children weren't really told of such things back then, so it's difficult to tell for sure.
My grandmother and all of her siblings lived into their 90's. The last and youngest one passed away about five years ago.
Topic: A Real Pandemic (Read 637 times)