I’ve written before about what a vital force my great-grandma was (1). One of my greatest possessions is the hand-written memoir and genealogy notes she made when she was still alive. In it, she very briefly mentions major events that happened in her life: WWI, the 1919 Winnipeg Strike and the flu. “Then the 1919 Flu struck + so many died because the doctors didn’t know what it was + how to cure it. It went through our family by ones and two, but thanks to father we all recovered.” (2)

There’s so much more I’d like to know about what her life was like during the event. I find it interesting that she noted that it was her father who took care of them. Was her mother sick? Did her father also get sick? Who did she know that died? Were they scared? How did it change the way they lived their lives?

Reading articles about what it was like then are interesting. In Winnipeg, everything shut down in October 1918, including ” all schools, cinemas, church services and other such gathering places.” (3) Although there was no emphasis on wearing masks in Winnipeg, there was in other places and it was as poorly received by a segment of the population as it is today. (4) The pandemic today has also been highlighting race and class inequalities as it did then (5) and it’s unfortunate that things haven’t changed much in 100 years.

In Quebec we have been using the expression “Ça va aller” which means “this will pass.” I think about how lucky we are to live in the modern age where we not only have a better understanding of disease but better medicine to treat it. I think of how fortunate we are that despite having to isolate ourselves from each other, we are more connected now than ever before thanks to the technologies we have. I think especially of how connected I am to a woman who lived through an event like this 100 years ago, how her vital force also flows in me, and I know that no matter what happens, ça va aller.

---

1 Jennifer Wiebe, Jennealogie, (https://maltsoda.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/happy-birthday-great-grandma/ : accessed 6 October 2020), “Happy Birthday, Great-Grandma!”

2 Ethel Garner, “Memoirs,” handwritten notes, 1993 (Chilliwack, BC); privately held by Jennifer Wiebe, Montreal, Quebec, 2020.

3 Christian Cassidy, West End Dumplings  (https://westenddumplings.blogspot.com/2013/10/spanish-influenza-visits-manitoba.html : accessed 6 October 2020), “”Spanish” Influenza visits Manitoba”.

4  Christine Hauser, The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/mask-protests-1918.html: accessed 6 October 2020), “The Mask Slackers of 1918.”

5 CBC Radio, CBC (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-spanish-flu-100-years-1.4843940 : accessed 6 October 2020), “Lessons for today from the Spanish flu of 1918.”

6 Rainbow, photograph 2020; digital image ca, privately held by Jennifer Wiebe, Montreal, Quebec, 2020.