Grandfather's+Story

__**Grandfather’s Story **__ Derek: Hey Granddad. We began studying WW1 today in school. I got bored at the lesson, so I started fumbling through the book. I saw that it took place between 1914 and 1918. Weren’t you a kid at that time?

Mia: You’re right! This is uncommon!

Derek: Good one, Mia. Granddad, tell me about what it was like when you were a kid. What was your family like? What did you do for fun?

Grandfather: Well, when I was your age, times were certainly much different. There were plenty of things to do that weren’t powered by electricity. And unlike you Derek, I had four sisters, not just one.

Derek: That must have been awful.

Mia: Shut up Derek! Keep going with the story Granddad! Where did you grow up?

Grandfather: Anyways, I had grew up here in Massachusetts, but in the town of Framingham, not too far from here. I was 11 years old when the Great Flu hit. You see, when I was a kid, there was a pandemic called the Spanish Flu that swept the world. It still is considered the most deadly outbreak of that century. It was exceptionally scary for me because it was all to real. Do you know how many people died during this?

Mia: I’m guessing a lot?

Grandfather: Unfortunately, this was the case. Over the years, they have projected numbers that say that Spanish Flu had killed more people than WW1. Have you learned about that in school yet? No, you said you weren’t interested in the lesson plan. But pay attention more! But now, the smart scientists that study this kind of thing estimate that anywhere from 20-100 million people were killed.

Derek: That’s awful!

Grandfather: You bet it was. It was scary, because every morning, people would ask each other, “Who died?” and usually, there would be a response. Death was always lurking in the neighborhoods. Five neighbors on my street died in just one season. In comparison to other places in the world, this was nothing. But to me, this was a lot to handle. I worked as an alter boy and in my summer job, I served in more than 30 masses for the dead. Some were flu victims, and some were WW1 soldiers who died in combat. From what I heard from the reverend, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston were the hardest hit cities.

Mia: Did you ever get that flu? And did anyone you knew get the Spanish flu?

Grandfather: I never got the flu, but I knew people who did. Do you remember any of my siblings?

Derek: No, I don’t ever remember you talking about them.

Grandfather: That’s because I outlived every single one of them, including all my parents and cousins. Now I never got sick, but my sisters were all infected. My mother kept me downstairs while my sisters stayed upstairs with the virus until they were old enough to move out. I saw two of my older sisters move out, and rarely heard from them ever again. Sadly, though, my youngest sister died from Spanish Flu. Her older sister and my younger sister could never fully recover from the residual pneumonia. When the disease was at its peak, people were very leery of each other. The government posted many poster telling people to wear masks over their faces, and they did.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: AmericanTypewriter,monospace; text-decoration: none;">Mia: Did you have medicine yet to help fight the flu? And what about vaccines? I just got a flu shot a few months ago.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: AmericanTypewriter,monospace; text-decoration: none;">Grandfather: Of course not! There were no antibiotics yet, but there was Bayer Aspirin. They still have it to this day. But the Germans made it, and when it hit the American Market, no one wanted anything to do with it. Some even thought that the Germans were responsible for Spanish Flu. There was limited treatment in 1918, so people tried anything to be safe. I heard about neighbors trying out folk medicine, praying, and anything they could do to stray away from death. They hoped that fate would be good enough to spare them from Spanish Flu.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: AmericanTypewriter,monospace; text-decoration: none;">Derek: Do you think this will happen again?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: AmericanTypewriter,monospace; text-decoration: none;">Mia: From what I know, I don’t think so. There’s so much more technology now than there was in 1918. There was a war at the time and a pandemic. The chances of that happening again are slim to none. Right Grandpa?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: AmericanTypewriter,monospace; text-decoration: none;">Grandfather: Precisely. You are the lucky generation. Fancy pieces of technology are a reach away. People in this part of the world rarely starve, there are no wide spread virus that kill millions at a time. You do not have a war going on in your home country, and you are safe. Don’t ever take that for granted.