Seven years ago, after my first trip to Cape Town, I searched for websites that would provide me with some insight into a place that I found incredibly fascinating. One gem my search turned up was a blog, written by Susan Hayden that is deeply insightful about life in South Africa and often incredibly moving. Her latest post deals with the psychological impact of a global pandemic. Not the current coronavirus event, but the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (Spanish flu). This pandemic killed 500,000 of the 7 million inhabitants of the South Africa. Susan's great grandfather was one of the survivors. That event not only impacted his life, but its consequences rippled through the lives of his children and their children. Something to consider as we face life after Covid-19.
For as long as I have known anything, I have known that my paternal grandfather, Richard Radford-Hayden, lost both of his parents to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. Orphaned together with his little brother, Harry, at a very young age, this lethal and mysterious virus brought to our shores by ships and which – for reasons we’ll never understand – targeted the young and healthy, constituted the dark backdrop of my father’s family history.
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