Eugenie Belle - 1918 Pandemic

 Eugenie Belle Smith was born on July 30, 1891 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Joseph H. Smith and Laura Eunice Jones. Eugenie was sister to my paternal grandfather, Malcolm Leroy Smith.  

Eugenie married Herbert Farley Merrey on May 27, 1913. To them three children were born. Gertrude Eunice, named for her mother, Edwin (Eddie) Leroy, named for her brother Malcom Leroy, and Joseph, named for her father.

Life was wonderful, that is until the Pandemic of 1918 known as the Spanish Flu infected a estimated 500 million people around the world. In the United States, 675,000 died.

The only defense at that time was isolation quarantine, good hygiene, disinfectants and limitations of gatherings that many did not follow.

It was the second wave in the fall of 1918 that lasted three months, caused by a mutant virus that was especially brutal.  This took the life of Eugenie Belle on October 7, 1918 at the age of 27. She left behind a husband and three young children, a daughter age five, a son age two and an infant son, one month old.

Eugenie's husband, Herbert remarried to Anna Sophia Copeland. He died in 1970 and Anna died in 1933. They all rest together in Hillside Cemetery in Bridgewater.  Also in this cemetery lies her mother, her brother Malcolm and his wife, Mary Ann Pierce.

Eugenie's brother Malcolm named a daughter after his sister, Eugenie Belle born in 1921. She passed away June 10, 2020 in her 99th year.

We are at this moment in time under siege of a pandemic known as Covid-19. Many have died around the world.  At warp speed vaccines have been developed and history repeats as in 1918, many people don't follow recommendations. We are now in the grips of a mutant virus that is more contagious and deadly.  History is repeating itself and as we watch the numbers of those infected increase, more lives will be lost.

I've been vaccinated to protect not only me, but also my family and those I love.  Have you been vaccinated?