October 20, 1918 - Mary goes downstairs

For the first time in over two weeks Mary and her sister Marguerite are well enough to be allowed downstairs.

Local newspaper headlines focus primarily on the impending end to the war in Europe.  Today's The Philadelphia Inquirer documents the number of U.S. war dead (including missing in action) since the beginning of U.S. involvement at over 50,000.

The first influenza-related headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer appears on page 11 and is somewhat reassuring. 

October 17, 1918 - Mary continues to improve

For first time in nearly two weeks, Mary was well enough and able to leave her room, but was still confined to upstairs of her home.  Her sister Marguerite seems to be making similar progress. She does not mention her father, who presumably has fully recovered.

As noted in the November 2017 Smithsonian magazine (original sources: America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred W. Crosby, the National Library of Medicine, and the US Census Bureau), 25.8 million Americans were infected with influenza in the 1918-1919 pandemic, and 670,000 died as a result (at a time when the U.S. population was about 103 million).  20% of the flu deaths were in children under 5 years of age.  The life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12 years because of the pandemic.  50% of U.S. military deaths in World War I were caused by influenza.  Among the notable people who died were the co-founders of the Dodge Brothers car company, the mother of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, the grandfather of President Donald Trump and Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.  Estimates of worldwide deaths vary but were likely in the range of 50 million.

October 13, 1918 - Churches still closed

Although beginning to feel somewhat better, Mary remains in bed.  She notes that all churches are still closed.  In her earlier diary entry on October 1, she mentions that October was the "great month of our Blessed Virgin."  Her religious devotion is clear: "Nothing will please me more than to be able to say that I didn't miss one day or one morning that I didn't go to Mass...."  For the rest of her life her religious devotion remained firm and one of her yet-to-be-born sons will become a Catholic priest.

October 11, 1918 - Agnes is buried

Mary's sister Agnes, age 16, was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery today.  Mary and another sister Marguerite were still too sick, remained in bed, and could not attend the funeral.  The funeral was at the family residence.  Agnes's father, Michael O'Neill was a furniture maker and undertaker and is listed as the undertaker on Agnes' death certificate. With shortages of caskets and a shortage of personnel who could dig graves, Michael as an undertaker, despite the fact that he himself was recovering from the flu, likely was able exert his influence to make sure his daughter was buried promptly and properly.

The Philadelphia Inquirer obituary page has nearly ten columns of deaths compared to only one column on the same date in 1917.  Agnes's name was amongst those listed on October 11, 1918.