Influenza

February 5, 2018

One hundred years ago, a tragedy played out that affected millions all around the world. World War I, which had taken a horrific toll on human life, was in its last days. What followed after the armistice was to exact an even greater price in human life. My grandmother was a young woman at the time, in her early thirties. She and my grandfather were newly married, and lived in Rochester, New York, in a modest but comfortable home on the northeast side of the city. I can remember my father driving along the street, pointing out where they lived. It was a beautiful street with a central divide shaded by majestic elm trees. But in 1918, it wasn’t so beautiful.

The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 rolled across entire continents, killing between 20 and 40 million people. No one knew what caused it, but it didn’t take long for people to recognize it. Unfortunately, recognizing it didn’t mean eradicating it. This particular strain would cause a person’s immune system to go into overdrive, producing a thick mucous that literally choked people to death in a bloody, frothy discharge. People would be fine in the morning, and dead by evening. My grandmother told of coming home from work from her job at the milliner’s shop each night, only to learn that another person who lived on their street had died. In that pre-penicillin era, uncertainty fueled fear, as people never knew if they would be the next to succumb to the disease.

My grandparents were among the lucky ones. They survived, and in 1921, my father was born. They lived to a ripe old age, my grandfather dying at the age of 88, with my grandmother passing away just shy of her 101st birthday. I guess it’s true that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

The flu season is upon us, and they say it’s a particularly virulent strain. Our son Matt came down with it, and has been out of commission for five days, with aches, fever, and chills. Since it is a virus, there’s not much that can be done about the flu itself, but with antibiotics and other drugs, its effects can be ameliorated in ways that just weren’t possible a hundred years ago. I’ve been fighting its symptoms, and believe I’m winning, but I am still grateful for the advances in medical science that make the flu season bearable. A hundred years makes quite a difference, and I’m glad I live now rather than then.