Three Percent of the World’s Population Died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic

I was a history major throughout college and went back for a Master’s later. The Great Flu epidemic was not covered as I recall.

My Dad’s only and oldest brother and SIL visited my Dad in a stateside Kansas Army Hospital in October 1981. My Dad was severely injured in an Army training exercise, in Sep 1918. He was admitted to the hospital in Kansas that became a center of the holocaust.

Both my uncle and his wife contracted the Spanish Flu shortly after their hospital visit in late Oct 1981 with my dad and he died. Both had been healthy young adults with zero illnesses. He left an 8 year old daughter and my Dad, who he basically raised. He apparently died in one day after becoming sick. He died on 21 Oct 1981, leaving one child a daughter and his wife who recovered from the flu.

My Dad also had 2 adult sisters, who had gone to California shortly before the outbreak in the fall of 1918. They were unable to find either sister after the flu epidemic.

An aunt, who raised my father and his siblings, felt that the 2 sisters were two of the many who died from the flu and ended up in an unmarked grave. No traces of either sister were ever found in censuses and any other genealogical sources.

So the Spanish 1918 flu killed my uncle, my dad’s brother and may have killed their two adult sisters in California. They just disappeared at that time.

My Dad’s only and oldest brother and SIL visited my Dad in a stateside Kansas Army Hospital in October 1981. My Dad was severely injured in an Army training exercise, in Sep 1918. He was admitted to the hospital in Kansas that became a center of the holocaust.

Both my uncle and his wife contracted the Spanish Flu shortly after their hospital visit in late Oct 1981 with my dad and he died. Both had been healthy young adults with zero illnesses. He left an 8 year old daughter and my Dad, who he basically raised. He apparently died in one day after becoming sick. He died on 21 Oct 1981, leaving one child a daughter and his wife who recovered from the flu.

My Dad also had 2 adult sisters, who had apparently gone to California shortly before the outbreak in the fall of 1918. They were unable to find either sister after the flu epidemic.

An aunt, who raised my father and his siblings, felt that the 2 sisters were two of the many who died from the flu and ended up in an unmarked grave. No traces of either sister were ever found in censuses and any other genealogical sources.

So the Spanish 1918 flu killed my uncle, my dad’s brother and may have killed their two adult sisters in California. They just disappeared at that time.