More on The 1918 Pandemic

 I thought Dad’s experience with the influenza pandemic was unique, but after doing some research I found there were many other children and whole families who suffered the same fate. The following information was taken directly from the internet:

129 people died of the Spanish flu in Lethbridge, 4,000 died in Alberta, 50,000 died in Canada and 40,000,000 died worldwide.

In November 1918, a group of worried neighbours entered the Rombough family home near Taber, to find Mr. Rombough lying dead in his bed. His wife and four children were beside him, all seriously ill with influenza.

Tragic scenes like this played out in homes around the world, because between 40 and 100 million people were killed by the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, including 4,000 Albertans.

Doctors worked endlessly to aid flu victims, but with no effective remedies, they had little power to help the patients they met. The inability to cure patients caused great stress for many doctors and their families at home. “So many deaths!” recalled Marjorie, the daughter of Munson, Alberta’s local doctor, Dr. Gibson. She recalled that the phone rang endlessly with “despairing calls for help,” and many terrified families came directly to their door begging for aid. Her father travelled for weeks at a time, visiting sick families in their homes. Marjorie’s fifteen-year-old brother drove their father from house to house, to allow Dr. Gibson to sleep in the back seat without stopping. Dr. Gibson, Murray, Marjorie and her other brothers all caught the deadly disease but recovered. Marjorie remembered the long years her family spent battling the flu as a “nightmare time in my memory.”

Many local women answered the call for volunteer nurses, and entered emergency hospitals or the homes of ill-stricken families, to care for the sick. Elisabeth Ripley of Lethbridge saw her brother-in-law’s family through the disease. Tragically, while performing this service, she contracted, and then died from, the flu.

Elisabeth’s death orphaned her three young children, whose father, Alvin Ripley, had been killed in the First World War a year earlier. This family’s tragic story demonstrates how closely the war and flu were tied, and the lasting impacts both had on young children.

After their parents’ death, the three Ripley children, Anna (8), Robert (5) and Ruth (3), were placed under the care of their uncle, Blair Ripley. In 1921, Anna (then age 11) was listed as head of household at a residence on 1240 5A Avenue South. The only adult listed in the census record was their maid, Elsie Filmer; their uncle had moved to Ontario.

Children spent most of the flu pandemic inside their homes because schools in Lethbridge and the surrounding area were closed to prevent the spread of the disease. Many children spent these dark days fighting the flu themselves or aiding their ailing

relatives. Most people fought the disease in their own homes, not in hospitals, so the children confined to these private spaces undoubtedly saw the disease firsthand.

During this terrifying time, families searched furiously for remedies that would save their loved ones. These newspaper clippings show just a small number of the “cures” that were advertised to families in Lethbridge. They range from drinking watered-down wine to building a new house or injecting the blood of healthy people into the sick.

The influenza virus landed in Toronto in the first or second week of September, 1918. By October 10, the virus had travelled to southern Alberta, and on October 17, Fort Macleod, Pincher Creek, Taber and Lethbridge were quarantined. No one could leave or enter these areas. The quarantines caused immense chaos; people visiting the city for the day were unable to return home. The quarantine was lifted after just 48 hours, but the city continually closed and reopened churches, theaters and schools as the flu ebbed and waned. Public gatherings, in general, were banned during especially deadly weeks and the province ordered all Albertans to wear masks whenever they left their homes during October and November, 1918. City officials and Lethbridge citizens also responded by converting Wesley Hall and the Miner’s Library into emergency flu hospitals. Many citizens openly defied official health regulations, refusing to wear masks or respect quarantine laws. However, the federal and provincial governments continued to play a large role in fighting the disease and the Federal Health Department was created in 1919 as a direct result of the pandemic.