I've been looking up any info I can find on events around the end of World War 1 and realised that I'd totally forgotten the influenza pandemic of 1918.
How could I have forgotten that?
Hundreds of millions of people affected by this deadly virus, more people killed by it than during the whole of WW1. Incredible!
What made it so deadly? How did it spread so far, so rapidly? Where did it originate?
Whatever its origins, it's fair to say that its effects were devastating.
Younger, previously healthy people appeared to succumb more readily than the elderly or infants.
At least ten percent of those infected, died from the disease.
I did notice that my dad's dad was recorded as having a wife (my paternal grandmother) and three children. I have never heard of two of those children. I wonder...did they die during this outbreak?
So it's back to the Ancestry website to find further details.
Life must have been one long struggle in those days. War, disease, poverty...how did they get through it?
The stories that I've uncovered so far have amazed me. Just my little family has given me such rich material for my writing, and yet I'm still putting off actually getting started on any stories.
Yes, procrastination IS the thief of time.
Note to self - get a move on!
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