 Part 6 of Work of the Sisters during the Epidemic of Influenza, October 1918, by Francis Edward Tersher. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part 6 St. Malachies One case is reported where an old grandmother of eighty was trying to do the housework and care for a family of six, father, mother, and four children, all very ill. The sisters took charge of this house, supplying food and bedclothes for the comfort of the sick, and succeeded in nursing all back to health but one child, who died. Another case is given of a poor widowed mother and three children, ranging in age from two to six years. The sisters found them living in one room. Conditions here were pitiable, a bed, a crib, a stove, a bureau, unwashed dishes, and cans made up the furniture and adornment of this poor little home. All the patients were in bed, wearing the clothing which they had on when taken sick, trying to keep warm. The poor mother was covered with a blanket, badly worn, the children with an old coat. The sisters cleaned and put the room in order, prepared the mother to receive the sacraments, and cared for the family until all were on the way to recovery. In the meantime, the diet and food for the sick were carried to them daily from the convent. St. Margaret's Norbeth In one home, father and mother and four children were all sick. When the sisters who were called to this house arrived, they found that one of the children, a girl of fourteen, had just died after receiving the sacraments. The body was awaiting burial, but the sick required first attention. The father was very sick. The sisters nursed and cared for this family for two weeks, all accepting the little girl recovered, and the sister has noted that the father is spiritually and morally a better man since this trial of sickness. Our Lady of Lords A description is given of a poor family, French, just come from Canada. They could speak hardly a word of English. The sisters found the mother and four children suffering from influenza. The house was totally unfurnished. On a mattress placed on the floor lay a little baby with very little clothing. The sisters went out to neighbors and begged beds and linens, and after a few hours they had the little home fit at least for human habitation. All here recovered and are very grateful to the sisters. From Miseracordia Hospital comes a description of two pathetic cases, one in which the father and mother of a family of eight, ranging in age from three weeks to ten years, had both contracted the disease with usual complications, pneumonia. They were brought into the hospital on a double stretcher. The mother died on the second day, just as the father was passing through his crisis. When he recovered consciousness there were eager questions about his wife. But her body was resting quietly in the grave long before the truth could be made known to him and the children. The Catholic Home Bureau received many like these. The other is the case of a young orphan girl of eighteen, a stenographer in one of our large corporations. She was far advanced in the disease when admitted, and her little white bed was surrounded by a portable screen to shield her from the surrounding patients. During the night her delirium was frightful, and it became necessary to restrain both wrists and ankles. For three days and nights she hung between life and death, not remaining quiet for one minute. About half past two in the morning of the fourth day the sister-on-night duty heard the most pitiful cry and hastening over to the little sufferer, just returned to consciousness, heard the heart-rending question, Sister, what did I ever do that they did this to me? Take them off, old sister, won't you take them off? Seeing that her mind was quite clear, and that her temperature had returned to normal, the sister freed her from the bonds which shielded her from danger during delirium, and in a few days the little patient had fully recovered. Mother of God Council, Bryn Mawr The sisters at Bryn Mawr were called by local physicians and representatives of the Red Cross to serve in the Bryn Mawr Emergency in conjunction with the sisters of the Immaculate Heart, St. Catharines, Wayne, and Sisters of Mercy at Rosemont. The shifts were divided into two for the day, one at night, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the night vigil from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. About one hundred cases of influenza were treated here. Twenty deaths out of this one hundred are reported. The most serious cases, usually of violent delirium, and the deaths were mainly of foreigners. The sisters served two weeks in this emergency. Two of the sisters were called also for outside work. One at the Monter Misericordier Academy, Marion, the other to care for the sick in private homes. Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur Fifteen of the sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur from their Convent Academy, West Rittenhouse Square, served night and day at the emergency established in the old medical gerurgical 18th and Cherry Streets from October 10 to October 26. Ten of the sisters were in attendance during the day shift, five at night. During the first two weeks, the shifts were twelve hours. After that, they were changed to eight hours. The first request for help came on the afternoon of October 10. The sisters were on duty that same night. The need of the sister's services was quite patent. Each ward, as described in the report of the sisters, contained about fifty to fifty-five patients under the care of one trained nurse and one, sometimes two, sisters. In addition to these were the doctors, senior medical students, and orderlies. The doctors and nurses seemed very sincere in noting what they called the earnestness, fidelity, and care of the sister's work and the influence of their presence upon troublesome or intractable patients. It was remarked that the sisters did not have to be told what was to be done. They saw what was needed and did it quietly and promptly. There was a noticeable respect and veneration for the habit and profession of religion among all Catholics and non-Catholics, which remains with the sisters one of the most consoling memories of the days of the epidemic. Many letters were received by the sisters of acknowledgement and kind appreciation from patients and friends of those who were under their care at the hospital. Two of the sisters contracted the disease, though the malady developed only in its milder form. They had fully recovered and were back at regular schoolwork when this report was made to the compiler December 7, 1918. Pottsville. Three hospitals in Pottsville were served night and day by eight sisters of St. Joseph from St. Patrick's Convent Pottsville, six sisters of the same order from St. Mary's Convent St. Clair, and 10 sisters of the Immaculate Heart. This number was later increased to 14 from Philadelphia. These hospitals were the Pottsville General Hospital, the Armory Emergency, and the Millican Home Emergency. This latter is the residence of a wealthy family and was turned over for the use of the influenza victims during the epidemic. At the Armory Emergency, six sisters of St. Joseph from St. Clair were on night duty. This appears to refer to a time earlier than the arrival of the Relief Corps of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart sent from Philadelphia, October 10. There were 125 in this emergency under the care of five doctors and five trained nurses, but about three-fourths of the patients were in a dying condition. Fifteen out of every 20, the doctor said, would die. Fourteen men and two women died during the sisters' first night in attendance. About one-half of those in the hospital were foreigners and nearly all Catholics. Many had not received the sacraments and could not speak English. The sisters sent for priests who could hear their confessions. The Slavish and Lithuanian priests were sick in bed. However, the sisters reached a Greek priest in New Philadelphia who came and prepared 20 men for death between the hours of 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. The Pottsville priests were marvels of self-sacrifice in their attendance. The Red Cross gave the sisters a lunch at 11 o'clock in order to enable them to receive Holy Communion in the morning before going to rest. In caring for private families, the sisters found in one home a mother and seven children, all ill, who had been left without medical attendance or care for several days. The mother died, despite all the sisters could do, to save her. And the seven children, with many others, left orphans under light conditions, were later placed in suitable Catholic homes. One case is reported of the non-Catholic wife of a man, a Catholic, she was dying. None of her own relatives would go near her. The sisters knelt beside her, making aspirations and acts of contrition, which she repeated until she died. Many, it is stated, died absolutely of starvation and want of care. Often the sisters in the hospitals had to get the bodies ready for the morgue, to wrap them in blankets and tag them, and then prepare the bed for another, half-dead, waiting for a place. As we entered the armory, writes one sister, we saw a poor woman just breathing her last. Sister, hurried to her side, just in time to say, My Jesus, mercy! She had not received the last sacraments. After the sisters entered on their duties, no Catholic, thank God, died without the sacraments. The nurses would bring the sister's word to see to the spiritual help of certain patients whose families had sent a special request that the sisters be with them in their agony. The relatives in these cases could not come, being ill or in attendance on the dead or dying of their own homes. Being short of help, the authorities sent to the armory some men from the county jail. One of these came to sister and said, Sister, please give me a rosary. She gave it to him, also a medal of our blessed mother, and penned on him a sacred heart badge. He then said to her, Sister, my time will be up on December 1st, and when I come out I'm going to be a different man. Another sister writes, When volunteers were called for to serve in Millican's hospital Potsville, I went into the chapel and offered my life and my work into our Lord's hands. We too started at 8 p.m. What sights and sounds met us as we entered that room where 84 patients were moaning and crying for help. There were about 40 babies in one room, all crying and perfectly helpless, their ages ranging from six days to two and a half years. We began at once on our appointed work, and you may be sure none died without the sacraments. All night long we were kept moving by appeals for water, ice, and other needful things, with only the wish that hands and feet could be multiplied. So many foreigners were among the sick, one pitted them all the more, because they could not make known their wants. Some were so far gone that worms were crawling out of their mouths. One morning when I was combing a woman's hair, she coughed and, putting in her hand, pulled out a worm that seemed to me a yard long, nor were worms the only kind of vermin crawling about. And the poor babies, one could not tell at first whether they were black or white. One woman refused her baby when it was taken to her, not recognizing it after it had been washed. All night long both men and women would call for the sisters, just to be near me, sister, then I can die happy. One poor woman in her agony said, oh, sister, tell me something about God and heaven, and hold my baby so I can see it. The baby was only six days old. She died gazing on it and repeating the holy name of Jesus. How many we prepared for death here, I could not tell you, both soul and body, for we had to wash them after death, tie up the gins and close their eyes. One poor Syrian, whom the men were carrying out as dead to the tent, turned over and said, I'm dead. In fright, the men dropped the stretcher and ran away. Going back, they found him really dead. One night a nurse came very kindly to us and said she would like to put some alcohol on her mask to make sure they were safe. She picked up a bottle on a table nearby and went to each sister moistening her mask. When she reached the last, sister looked at the bottle and found it marked Madame Cecilia's Worm Remedy. A New York doctor who volunteered his services in these desperate conditions worked incessantly for 56 hours and then was himself a victim of the dread disease. He insisted that the sisters attend him because he said they were quiet and did exactly as the doctors told them. He grew worse and called for the sisters to pray with him. He repeated after sister the acts of faith, hope and contrition, and although a non-Catholic, he died pressing the sacred heart badge to his lips and saying, My Jesus, mercy. Many other non-Catholics in that hospital died, showing light dispositions. All around us were struck and greatly edified at the way our Catholic people died and at the self-sacrifice of the priests in assisting them. When the reopening of the schools called us from the work, the head nurse urged us to remain. One poor Italian woman who had a beautiful voice used in her delirium to chant the litanies the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina. A Catholic nurse who became ill and who was being prepared for death was in the room with another nurse, a Lutheran, and was somewhat alarmed about going to confession so near her companion. We explained to the Lutheran who kindly consented to put her hands over her ears and cover her head with a double blanket. We were told that a poor man was dying. We went to him and found a minister by his bed. The patient asked for a priest. A sister then went to call the priest, but the minister said, there is no use in calling the priest. The man has been a drunkard and it is too late now for him to turn to the Lord. Sister replied, the priest was ordained for the sake of sinners and our Lord has given him power to forgive all kinds of sin. The priest came at 10 p.m. and administered the last sacraments. The trained nurses were especially kind in showing the sisters untrained as to nursing what to do and how to do it. One of the sisters used to say justingly, we can do everything now in the line of nursing from attending to newborn babies to putting bodies into the coffin. Several ladies, the wives of city officials, who came to see how matters were progressing and to render service if possible, stayed by the sisters as they were assisting the patients in their agony and were greatly struck by the beauty and significance of the prayers said. Some even said that they would like to die so peaceful a death as those they saw and would be glad to have the sisters to assist them. One poor patient, a Protestant, was so violent that she had to be strapped in bed. The minister came to see her at once. The next day she was so weak, sister spoke to her of death. She replied that she was suffering so much she was not afraid to die. Sister then spoke to her of God and our Lord's suffering and death taught her aspirations and the act of contrition which she repeated with great fervor. From that time until she died she never seized saying, My Jesus, mercy, forgive me my sins, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, Lord Jesus, receive my soul. One night two sisters who were to go on night duty at the armory were ill and the superior would not let them go. Soon came a hurry call saying that the sisters were needed. The superior replied that they were ill and she feared to let them out that night. Oh, you must send some sister, the nurse replied. We can't get along without them. They are better here than the police. Afterwards she explained that the sisters did not act as policemen but that when they came and went quietly and diligently to their work other nurses were loathed to be behind them. One poor patient begged the sister to accept some money in return for their services. She told him the sisters worked not for money but for the love of God. Then he said very earnestly and sincerely, Sisters, how do you get it? The mystery of God's grace. End of Part 6. Art 7 of Work of the Sisters during the Epidemic of Influenza October 1918 by Francis Edward Tersher. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part 7. Relief Work in Private Homes, Sisters IHM. St. Agatha's, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On answering an urgent call in the parish we found a sick mother and three sick babies lying around the parlor crying for relief from their sufferings. They had been there for a week in this condition. On attempting to arrange a bedroom for them we discovered upstairs alone the father in a dying condition who told us that he had been an invalid for years. We arranged the little ones and their mother in fresh clean beds, prepared nourishment for them, and soon they were on the way to recovery. The invalid father died. At the same time we were attending several homes in the neighborhood at one house the mother, though not seriously ill, was utterly unable to attend to her little children, one a baby of four months. Each morning we stopped here, dressed the little ones, and prepared a substantial breakfast for them and nourishment for the mother. After visiting a few others we returned to the little ones who were eagerly looking for dinner. Again, towards evening we gave these babies their supper, arranged the mother's room for the night, undressed the children, and put them to bed. In one of the other homes on her round during that same week there was a poor old lady without a soul to care for her. In another a sick mother, in a third a mother and three sick children. We did what we could for each, though we did not remain at any one place all day, as none of these were seriously ill. All gradually recovered. Another home in St. Agathas gave evidence of the utmost destitution. Following the directions given the sisters reached this place but received no answer to their repeated knocking at the door, nor could they see the slightest sign of life around the place. Suspecting that all were victims of the influenza, the sisters entered the house where they found the most abject poverty. The father, mother, and three little ones were all in bed, helpless. The mother had received the last sacraments the night before. She realized that recovery for her was ordinarily impossible, and her distress at the thought of leaving her little ones was pitiable. The sisters here did their best to improve conditions, but the task was difficult as the father, their only breadwinner, had been ill for several weeks, and there was practically nothing in the house. With money provided for the purpose, however, the sisters procured sheets and necessary linens, good warm clothing, and the necessary food and nourishment. For eight days we worked with these patients from early morning until late at night, but finally a change came, and they all gradually grew stronger. Then we visited them for only a few hours each day in order to wash them, arrange their beds, and leave them nourishing food. After another week we had the happiness to see all on a sure road to recovery. In the same neighborhood the sisters found a poor old grandmother and two little children in extreme danger of death, while in the same bed lay the dead body of a beautiful little boy of five years. After removing the dead body and preparing it for burial, the sisters devoted their attention to the sufferers, all of whom recovered. On our arrival at one of the homes reported by our pastor as requiring assistance, we found a mother and three little ones stricken with influenza, and two other little ones making the most of their unrestrained and unaccustomed liberty to do just as they pleased. At first we did not know what to do, but we set to work. After arranging the bedrooms and giving all possible relief and comfort to the sick mother, we prepared some white nourishment, which she sadly needed, and prepared for the doctor's visit. Then we washed and dressed the little ones who were not ill, and finally proceeded to prepare dinner for them and for the father who was at work. Dinner over we gave a much needed cleaning to the rooms downstairs in the intervals between attending to the sick. We had barely finished when it was time to prepare supper. Then we put the little ones to bed and arranged the sufferers for the night. Before returning to our convent we prepared medicines and nourishment for the father to administer during the night. Though this poor good man had been working laboriously all day, he watched his loved ones every night until the danger was past. This routine continued for ten days when the mother was able to manage for herself, and we were called to more needy patients. Among these were a very young woman who had no one to care for her. The first day we cleaned and arranged her room, in fact the whole house, while we were waiting for the priest to come to administer the last sacraments. During the week following we remained there all day, doing all the work of the house and cooking for her husband. She also recovered. Another sister writes, the first house we entered was certainly a scene of distress. Lying on a couch were a mother and two small children. In another corner on the floor were two a little older. In the adjoining room the father was dying. On a bench in the same apartment lay a young man utterly incapable of the least movement. The only one to assist these poor victims was a little girl of ten years. As quickly as possible we arranged the several poor beds upstairs, procured fresh lennons and sheets for them from the convent, and made the sufferers as comfortable as could be expected. The mother seemed to derive her greatest consolation from the fact that the children and her husband were being cared for by the sisters. After about two weeks all recovered except the father whom God called to his reward. Another family in the same parish presents a scene much the same. The mother and the three little children in one room, the mother's aunt, a very old lady in another, all victims of the disease. The father of the little ones was doing his poor best to assist the sufferers but his efforts he said seemed fruitless. The sisters here realized as in many cases that the first necessity was cleanliness and fresh air. These attended to, they administered the medicines as prescribed by the doctor, and then prepared nourishment. After four or five days of care and attention in this home the patients were fairly convalescent and the sisters directed their attention to the more needy. Passing by another house on their errands of mercy the sisters noticed one dwelling apparently closed. They discovered two that the doors were locked. After inquiry the sisters procured the key from the neighbors and went in. On the second floor lay a poor man, his wife and child, all victims of the disease, helpless and starving though they were far from poverty. For almost a week the sisters remained here from early morning until late at night. Then after preparing nourishment and medicines they locked the doors and confided the key to the neighbors until next morning. All these patients recovered. Annunciation. All the sisters but one here were victims of the influenza in serious form so that one only served as district nurse to several Italian families in the parish. This one later went to the emergency hospital at Pottsville. Two of the convalescents of this convent also later attended the children at the home bureau 1702 Summer Street. St. Anthony's, Philadelphia. Many families, especially the very poor, were visited by the sisters from St. Anthony's convent but in nearly every case the patients were removed to emergency hospitals. One case however deserves mention. A woman in extreme poverty sent for aid to the convent. She even depended on the sisters for the bearer's necessities. There was no wash basin except the dish pan which served all purposes. No food of any kind was in the house. For two days the sisters cared for this poor soul who though not dangerously ill and therefore unable to obtain admission to a hospital was absolutely helpless. On Saturday evening when the sisters were leaving the husband told them not to return on Sunday as he would stay at home to care for his wife. Trusting him implicitly they obeyed. As they were nearing the house early on Monday morning the neighbors came crying and asked them to get the priest as the man was dying. They sent for the priest but when they entered the sick room they found the man not dying but drunk. The sister services were no longer required on this case. St. Clement's, Pascalville. A sister who had been sent to Pottsville for relief work gives her experience. In one little home near Pottsville I discovered a young man dying who had neglected his religious duties for ten years. Upon questioning I discovered that he remembered no prayer but the Hail Mary though he joyfully consented to receive the last sacraments. After receiving the sacraments placing a light at candle in his hand I assisted him to make his thanksgiving. Very reverently he repeated each aspiration after me and just as I was saying Jesus, Mary and Joseph I give you my heart and soul and my life, he passed peacefully away. No one, not even the physician, had the least notion that death was imminent. Surely our mother takes care of her own. St. Edmunds, Philadelphia. My first experience in nursing was with two of our own sisters who had very severe attacks of influenza. They were recovering when a very urgent call for help came to the convent and we hastened on our errand of mercy. We found six victims in this one home. A young man was making feeble effort to attend to his sister and aunt. His father had just left a sick bed to care for a child of two years and a baby who was going to the children's hospital. The doctor ordered to both brother and father to bed as both were running a very high temperature. It was three o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at this home so we phoned for permission to remain with the poor sufferers during the night. One of the patients was delirious, another a victim of double pneumonia. About midnight the double pneumonia patient became very delirious and wanted to leave her bed. However, whenever sister or myself approached her she grew quiet. Even in her delirium she realized the presence of the sisters and she kept speaking of St. Paul's and St. Thomas's where she had attended school. The sisters had been admonished by the doctor of the approaching crisis in the pneumonia case. About midnight, the sister writes, we noted a change. We feared to alarm the other members of the family. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the delirium ceased. She grew calm. The temperature gradually lowered to normal and in a few moments she fell into a sleep as peaceful as an infant. For four nights and days following we watched continually in this home an average of nineteen hours each day returning to our convent about eleven a.m. each morning and resting there until three p.m. when we felt sufficiently refreshed to renew our vigil about four p.m. for the next night. About the fifth night, however, we decided to watch alternately two hours at a time, one resting while the other kept vigil. This rest consisted in sitting in the parlor, a little back from the open window which afforded a moving panorama of doctors' machines, ambulances from St. Agnes Hospital, patrols, and funerals. One of the funerals was just a casket placed across the front of an automobile. One night a neighbor came pleading for us to go to a nearby house where the mother and five children had been stricken and no one, not even near relatives, would go to them. Neither sister nor I could go then as our patients were all still in a serious condition but we promised to have a sister there from the convent at Daybreak. This poor woman was overjoyed when the sister came in the morning and she told us later on that she had hesitated long before asking as she was not of our faith. During all this period of anxiety, we were unable to leave our patients to assist at even a private mass in our convent chapel or to receive Holy Communion except on Sunday. However, we certainly made some good meditations during these long nights. We remained in this place 14 nights in all but the labor and anxiety were rendered easier by the simple confidence, gratitude, and humble kindness of these good people, all finally recovered. St. Francis Xavier's Philadelphia The sisters at St. Francis Xavier's suffered very severely from the ravages of the epidemic. Twice they endured the shock of death, which claimed two of the sisters during the month of October, though one only sister Florentines was a victim of influenza. Ten others of the community were very ill with influenza. Five of the sisters however went out to the homes in the parish, nursed the sick, and assisted the afflicted when they could be spared by their sick associates in the convent. St. Gabriel's Philadelphia In St. Gabriel's parish, the disease was very prevalent so that the sisters went from house to house seeking out those who were in direst need, not remaining permanently unless there was no one to care for an urgent case, but offering assistance where it was most needed in the form of nourishment, cleaning, and arranging the sick room, bathing the sufferers, and administering medicines, as prescribed. The following is an example of a typical day. First, we found a lady who was very low. She was alone and could not get a doctor. We stopped a doctor whom we knew in the neighborhood who could not come then, but called a little later. On our way to the next house, we met a woman who pleaded with us to go with her. On entering the home, which she pointed out to us, we found a poor man whom one of us had taught as a boy in school. His was the saddest case we met. He was helpless with the disease. His two darling little children were playing on the floor, and he had just received word that his wife had died at St. Agnes Hospital. We remained with him till the body was brought home, assisting him all we could. Then we left him alone with his babies and the body of their dead mother. Each time we visited him, we found him more resigned to the loss of his girl, wife, and most faithful in having the holy sacrifice of the mass offered for her soul. These sisters next visited a home where the father and mother were both in bed, and their little girl, about three years old, playing outside, all unconscious of sorrow or care. They judged it necessary to have the mother removed to a hospital, but every application met with the same reply, no room. Finally they decided to remain with the sufferers all night, but about nine o'clock the ambulance came for them, and both were removed to an emergency hospital. We kept the little girl at the convent until the mother recovered. Just outside the parish limits, the sisters one day came upon a very pathetic scene. Six little children stood weeping outside a house, waiting to bid farewell to their dear father, whose body was being prepared for burial, though no one could be found to dig the grave. After offering some little consolation, the sisters passed on to another house. Returning a few hours later, they met the six children again, and the eldest, a girl of twelve, between sobs explained that as soon as their father's body had been removed, the mother was found dead upstairs. The sisters had these children taken to the Catholic Home Bureau until relatives could be found to care for them. A very sad case was that of a whole family stricken, mother, seven children, and no nurse but the father, who also was seriously ill. When the sisters entered this home, the mother had just died, leaving a baby ten days old. The father, a picture of distress, cared not whether he lived or died. A kind neighbor, whose own girl was lying dead, relieved the sisters of the care of the infant. After a week all were convalescing except the baby, which later died. Holy Name Philadelphia On Friday afternoon, October 10th, our pastor requested the services of two sisters for a family in the parish where there was great distress. We found the house on a very narrow back street, and the poor people were truly to be pitted and greatly in need of help. In the parlor were the dead bodies of the married son and his wife, who had died a few days previously. A daughter was dying in an adjoining room alone while her mother was seriously ill upstairs. The only attendant they had was the father, who was too sick to realize what he was doing. As both mother and daughter were in extreme danger, we sent for the priest to administer the last sacraments. In the interval we made all possible preparations, bathed the patients, and attempted to give the rooms at least an appearance of respectability. Both mother and daughter received the sacraments, but there was no improvement in the condition of either. Late that night a woman from the neighborhood came and offered to take our places while we returned to the convent for a few hours rest. When we returned to our patients early next morning, we found that the poor father, who had been acting as nurse until four p.m. the day before, had been anointed about midnight, and he was in a very precarious condition. We made arrangements for the burial of the son and his wife that day, ministering all the while to the three whom we thought to be dying. Next day my sister companion had contracted the disease, and as all the other sisters were out on cases, I felt at my duty to remain alone at this poor home. By this time the mother was sinking rapidly. The doctor gave her only a few hours to live. We continued to pray until her soul finally passed away. The father and daughter gradually recovered, and they have since shown evidence of better dispositions by regular attendance to their religious duties. Though previous to the epidemic, the neighbors did not even know that they were Catholic. Late one Saturday afternoon a call came from a poor colored family in the parish. The sisters found a mother and two boys seriously ill and starving. They said that they had had no nourishment of any sort for over a week. The sisters at first saw no other sign of life around the house, but soon the weak voice of another victim called them upstairs. The first requisite in this house was to prepare some liquid diet, for they could take no solid food. Then the house had to be thoroughly cleaned, the patients had to have their faces washed, the beds had to be arranged, and the rooms aired. The sisters continued to care for these colored people for over a week, when they had improved sufficiently to help themselves. The next care confided to these sisters was a doctor's family, and needless to say, the circumstances were quite different. Here too all were afflicted, even the housemaids, and no nurses could be had. After a few days, however, all were convalescent. In another home the mother was dying, the daughter seriously ill, and the father's body had been lying in the parlor for a week, awaiting burial. In many homes in this district, the sisters not only nursed the sick, but cooked, cleaned the house, and washed as well. In addition, they visited many homes to comfort those bereaved, and to assist the dying with prayers. Later assistance was requested at the Catholic Home Bureau, and the same two sisters helped there, with the babies till school reopened. End of Part 7 Part 8 of Work of the Sisters during the Epidemic of Influenza October 1918 by Frances Edward Tersher. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part 8 Incarnation, Olney, Philadelphia Very valuable service was rendered to the sisters here by a good gentleman, a non-Catholic, who came every morning to take the sisters to the different homes where their attention was requested. Another gentleman, also a non-Catholic, came faithfully each evening at 6.15 p.m. to take the sisters who were serving there to the emergency hospital at Homsburg, where they were due at 7 p.m. and every morning when they came off duty at 7 a.m. He was waiting to take them back to their convent. He was never one minute late, either morning or evening, though these trips must have entailed great personal sacrifice since his business hours usually were from 9 to 4. The first necessity in nearly every home in this district seemed to be fresh air and God's own sunlight, though in many cases this was not obtained by the sisters without much coaxing and even some altercation. In one home where mother and father were desperately ill, two little ones were found trying to build a fire to get something to eat and warm themselves. Here, after three days, a nurse was obtained. On answering another urgent request to attend one of their little schoolgirls, we found to our dismay not a little girl, but an old lady of the same name who stood mumbling something utterly unintelligible to us. Finally, we made out, yes, them are a bad, bad, bad, sick. Instead of the little girl whom we were seeking, we discovered the little girl's sister-in-law, a non-catholic, and her brother, a fallen away Catholic. Here, too, was much to be done, and after sending a messenger for another sister to find the little girl, we remained to nurse these victims. After following the doctor's directions for several days, we had both on the safe way to recovery. When two of our sisters went to a house in Olney, where assistance had been required, the colored servant who opened the door left them in dismay and fled to the mistress of the house. While waiting patiently on the doorstep for admission, the sisters overheard the following dialogue. Missy, you and them ladies downstairs, why, they are the sisters from the convent Delia, to which the reply came in utmost scorn. Sisters, dem at no, sisters down there, dem as sure enough diamond spies, and this nigger leaves this house the minute day comes in. After many explanations from the good lady, a non-catholic, who was too ill to leave her bed, Delia was finally persuaded to grant admission to be suspected spies. After a short hour she admitted grudgingly, well, I judged as not a state citizen's all right. From another colored servant in the same district came the surprised remark, who'd ever think dem das sisters could wash and clean and do such cooking. In one home the only one free from the dread disease was an infant of nine months, whom the sisters found seated on the floor regaling himself with oranges and candy galore. Surely an unusual diet for a baby. Mother, father, and four little ones in this home were victims of influenza. One little boy, running a temperature of 103 degrees, cried loudly, bad lady, bad lady, whenever the sisters attempted to approach him. After a good alcohol bath and some nourishing broth, however, his melody changed to dood lady, dood lady. This he continued incessantly in a sort of semi delirium until he fell into a soothing sleep. All these patients, non-catholics, recovered and events sincere gratitude to the sisters. The horror in which some of the sufferers held fresh air and sunlight may be imagined by the fact that in one home the sisters had to tell the patients, who fortunately in this instance were Catholics, that the archbishop had issued orders that windows be opened wide. One poor woman here had on four coats and three sweaters. She was well covered in bed, besides. The sisters discovered moreover that she was physically well, but suffered from a very vivid imagination. She was sure of this, however, and it was proving quite as serious as the reality. After getting her to take a walk in the fresh air, the sisters cleaned and arranged the house, which had been sadly neglected, and prepared a meal for the poor husband, who had had nothing substantial for several days. This case was later turned over to a district nurse. In many cases the sisters found that patients were suffering more from starvation and neglect than from influenza. Most blessed sacrament, Philadelphia. One family to which we were called early during the epidemic was in great distress. The mother of four little boys, a victim of the dread disease, was suffering intensely from an abscess in the ear. Her husband had remained at home until his pecuniary circumstances became such that return to work was imperative. As he was a non-catholic, he came as a last desperate resource to the sisters for help. During the first few days we found plenty to do on account of the neglected condition of the house, but nothing seemed to relieve the suffering of the poor mother. One day we begged her to pin a sacred heart badge on her pillow. She consented. That night the abscess broke. Relief was then instantaneous. From that time her entire physical condition improved, and each day when we arranged her hair and dressed the sore ear she begged us to replace the badge. Both she and the little ones became quite attached to the sisters. In the same neighborhood we discovered an anxious mother, heartbroken, keeping watch beside her only son, who had become delirious shortly after having received the last sacraments. He had been an exemplary youth, and now he was pleading earnestly with his mother to allow him to become a nun, and begging her to tell him how long it would take. We seemed to calm him, so we remained until late that night, whispering ejaculations whenever we discerned some ray of consciousness. When we returned the next day we found that he had died a very peaceful death. We were called out late one evening to the home of a Polish family in the parish, where a mother, father, and five little children were tossing with fever and crying for food. All were seriously ill, and the neighbors were afraid to enter or offer any assistance. They could speak only a little English, and when we entered the mother sobbed loudly, oh, sisters dear, I knew God would not forget us. Look, my dear little baby. Going over to the child I saw it was dead. The condition of the father was most serious, so after pinning sacred heart badges on all we sent a messenger for the priest to administer the last sacraments. He made three visits to that poor home during the night, fearing that the man would die before the morning. Placing all our trust in a sacred heart, we watched and ministered to these poor sufferers continually during that long night, and our confidence was rewarded. When the non-catholic doctor arrived next day, he was pleased with the improvement of all, but the man said to him, you no cure me, my church make me better. We spent two weeks with this poor neglected family, and then when all were able to be out of bed, we found a new field for mercy among the sufferers in the mining districts around Potsfell. One day a poor man came to the convent in his auto begging for assistance. Though he had wealth at his command, he was unable to get a nurse for his dying wife and child, an infant of a few months. Here the sisters remained during the first night. Afterwards, one stayed all day, and another sister came during the night. After about a week's care, both patients were pronounced out of danger, and these sisters were called to relief work in Potsfell. St. Paul's Philadelphia Most of the sisters of this mission, 34 in all, were assigned to duty in the hospitals at Honsburg and at Phoenixville. About ten, however, devoted their services to the poor Italians in the immediate vicinity of St. Paul's. Many of these sufferers were unable to speak English. One sister says, Our first experience was with a family of Italians. On entering the house, we found a bed all pulled apart, the bed linen scattered over the floor, and everything in the room awry. After asking many questions, we gleamed from the broken English of their replies that the mother had been buried just that morning. Eight children, ranking in age from eighteen months to thirteen years, remained. They were in the adjoining room, which contained little else than four beds, two children in each, all seemingly stricken with influenza. Shortly after, the father returned from the mother's funeral in desperation. He told us that for no amount of money could he secure a nurse for the little ones. Not understanding English very well, he was incredulous when we finally made him understand that we would care for his children. First, these good sisters made up the bed in the room from which the mother had been taken, then they scrubbed the floor, a sanitary measure very much needed, then the children were washed, given clean clothing, and transferred to the larger bed, while the other room was thoroughly cleaned. The two younger children, meanwhile, shared the cradle. When they were given nourishment, the little lad of two years smiled brightly, and after many questions it was discovered that he had no other ailment than cutting teeth. Of course, he was immediately removed from the others. The little lad had been hungry only, and the nourishment revived him. After about a week's care and nursing, all these little ones had recovered, and the father was so impressed that he returned to the sacraments which he had neglected for years. He said he had absolutely forgotten God and his church, but when he saw the sisters enter his home to do gratuitously what others would not do for money, he began to wonder why they did so, and his meditation on this led him back to God. In another home in the Italian district, a father was caring for a sick wife. In bed with her was an infant, a child about a year older lay in a crib nearby, and in the adjoining room three other little ones occupied one bed, all six victims of influenza. Here, too, the sisters found ample scope for their charity, also evidence of sincere gratitude. The poor foreigners, who could hardly speak a word of English, expressed their sense of sincere thankfulness in the livelier language of Italian, gesticulation. At the request of a businessman of the same district, the sisters visited a house where another father was attending to five motherless children. Here, the greatest poverty was evident, but through the generosity of their kind benefactor, the sisters were able to procure a physician, also to purchase some food, fuel, and clothing, as were necessary. These little ones were entrusted entirely to the care of the sisters while their father was away at work, and later, when they were convalescing, it was amusing to find them sending over to the convent, without their father's knowledge, to tell the sisters that they were hungry, and please send over something to eat. The baby boy had an extremely high fever for some days, and when it began to abate, the incredulous father knelt all of one day by the bedside, fearing that death was imminent. All in this house recovered. In another tenement, we found a mother and three sick children. The mother, though not ill herself, was absolutely helpless in the question of caring for the suffering little ones. We squeezed an orange, which we found lying on one of the beds, and gave the juice to the two little girls. When the mother saw how the children brightened by this little refreshment, she asked through an interpreter, whom we had brought with us, what she should do for the baby, who was just gasping for breath. We feared that even a teaspoon full of liquid would choke the little one, so we instructed the poor woman how to accustom the child's throat gradually to it, by first moistening its lips. The look of gratitude we received in return from that poor woman, who could not speak one word of English more than repaid us for any little inconvenience we experienced during that day. After several visits to this poor home, the mother began to understand how to care for the little victims, and soon all were on the way to recovery. In one place a delirious patient was found gazing intently from the window. Sister asked, in order to rouse him, are you looking for someone, or something? Oh no, came the reply, I'm just watching the sunset. It was then between eight and nine p.m. Another poor laborer thought he was in a shop, and insisted that Sister turn the horses heads the other way. Evidently he mistook her for his assistant, for when disregarding his injunction that she continued arranging his room, he called out, that spoils you, George. Sacred Heart, Philadelphia. In this district the sisters have been subjected to all sorts of indignities for many years. They could scarcely leave the convent without encountering Jews, who openly insulted them. Even the very children spat at them, threw mud at them, or what was much more deplorable, called aloud such epithets as, Jesus girls. From one of the sisters we learned that the work of the sisters in the homes of these poor, unbelieving Jews during the epidemic has been productive of a marked change of sentiment and outward demeanor. The sisters unselfishly visited these poor people, and voluntarily nursed those who required assistance. At first the Jews were incredulous. Later they received the sisters in wondering gratitude. As a result, those people who formerly despised openly the habit of the religious, now as openly manifest toward it marks of reverence and respect. A pathetic incident, the result of a mixed marriage, comes from the same district. A father and two children, Catholics, a mother and her sister, non-Catholics, and a very strongly prejudiced against everything Catholic, were all victims of the influenza, with no one to care for them. The sisters took charge of this home. Every evening the sisters at the request of the father would recite the rosary and litany of our Blessed Mother for the sick and dying. One evening after the prayers had been said, the little girl called, Daddy, won't you say an extra prayer for your own little girl? She is so sick. The mother looked up sadly and asked, Catherine dear, why don't you ask Mother to pray for you too? To which the little one replied, but Mother, you don't pray like Daddy and Brother and me. The mother surely had food for thought, and later on she asked the sisters for Catholic books to read. Since her recovery, she goes to Mass every Sunday, and the husband is hopeful that soon she will enter the true fold. Her sister too, though not convinced, has been very much softened by her association with the sisters, and now is careful to show them every outward courtesy and respect. St. Thomas Aquinas, Philadelphia Very few of the private homes in this district required the attention of the sisters, as most of the victims of influenza were removed to the emergency hospitals on South Broad Street. Several calls, however, were answered. In one poor home the sisters found a mother and six small children, Italians, afflicted with the dread disease. The father, who had been attending them for nine days, alone, seemed helpless in his grief, for the doctor had just told him that one of the children, a dear little girl, had only an hour to live. Here the sisters bathed the mother and children, cleaned their rooms, prepared nourishing broths, and administered the medicines as the doctor had directed. All during the night they kept watch in this poor home. The next day, finding the patients somewhat improved, the sisters returned to their convent for a brief rest. For several days, during which the patients, all except the little girl, gradually improved, the sisters occupied their leisure moments in cleaning the house and doing a very large wash that had been accumulating for several weeks. Transfiguration, Philadelphia One of the sisters writes, on Monday, October 14th, at the request of Father Fiss Morris of Frankfurt, we visited a Jew on Pine Street. His wife was most respectful and told us in all confidence that she had sent for the sisters because she was sure such good ladies would make her husband better. The poor man was beyond the reach of earthly assistance, however, and he died soon after our arrival. During the early days of the epidemic, a man called at the convent to ask for one of the sisters to go to a young girl who was dying. The gentleman was not of our faith, but he had been sent by the priest to tell us that the girl was alone among non-Catholics. The poor child did not realize that death was near. So after preparing her for the sacraments, we sent for the priest and got all in readiness for the visit of the divine guest. She did not linger long after receiving the sacraments. We continued praying with her until the end, and the non-Catholics with whom she lived did all in their power to make us feel comfortable and to render the last moments of their young friend peaceful. Her death seemed to have made a very deep impression on all who were present at the scene, to them so unusual. Late one Sunday evening two of the sisters were hurried to a house on Second Street where a sick mother, a dying father, and four very sick children were in sad need of care. The mother, though in a serious condition, was making an effort to attend to the others. They had called on the Red Cross for assistance in vain. The most urgent need was to prepare both husband and wife for the last sacraments and to send a messenger for the priest who came immediately. All night we waited on them and tried to make them as comfortable as possible in the midst of their utter destitution. When morning dawned, realizing their serious condition, we at once determined to have them admitted to one of the hospitals as their poor home was in such a condition as to make it absolutely impossible for us to give them proper care, and the neighborhood was one of the worst in the city. Every emergency to which we applied was crowded, so we continued our work with them unremittingly until Wednesday night at ten o'clock, seventy-two hours at least, when a patrol came and removed the father and children to the emergency on Arch Street. Later it returned to take the mother to the municipal hospital, where after a few days suffering she died a peaceful, happy death. Father and babies later recovered. Another sister from St. Veronica's tells of an encounter with a young man of the parish, then in one of the emergency hospitals. He had not been to the sacraments for seven years, and begged as a great favor that sister bring him a priest, promising to grant her any favor she would ask in return. The priest soon reconciled this strayed sheep, and also his wife, who was in the women's ward downstairs. This man has not forgotten his promise to the sister, who begged as her reward that he attend to Mass and the sacraments regularly. The sister has seen this man attending Holy Mass regularly ever since, often even on days not of obligation. St. Catherine's Wayne The first call of the sisters at St. Catherine's was to relieve conditions in the Italian colony. These poor people were terrified by the symptoms which they noted in their sick, and the district nurse, a non-Catholic, in her appeal to the sisters, told them in despair that there was no response to treatment, no control of the spreading malady, due partly to the fright of the foreigners, partly to their misunderstanding of the orders and directions of doctors and nurses. The sisters began their work in this foreign district October 10. They first made a tour of inspection to find out who was sick and what was needed. Their report of conditions says, worse than we anticipated. In one home the sisters found eight victims in bed, and a little girl, eight years old, the only nurse, housekeeper, and cook. Luckily she had had little to do in the line of cooking, as the patients were, as they thought, carrying out the doctor's orders, and had taken absolutely no nourishment for several days. They were starving, and as symptoms were not serious, the sisters countermanded the doctor's orders, real or imaginary, ordered nourishment, prepared it themselves in a strangely un-American kitchen, and soon had the victims free of one peril at least. The sisters gave strict orders for cleanliness and the taking of medicines, as the doctors prescribed. There was a general cleanup, sweeping, dusting, scrubbing, and a fair promise of normal sanitary conditions. Bed linens were brought out and put to use, which apparently had been serving as heirlooms in the family, or ornaments for state occasions. In one home three different doctors had left prescriptions. Following the sisters' orders, literally, the three drugs were given to the victims one dose of each every third hour, with apparently no harmful results. In many homes the people, even the children, were in bed, wearing their working clothes and street apparel. They had not the proper garments, the sister reports, and generally no bed linens. One man was in bed wearing an overcoat and a fur cap drawn over his ears, with all available bed clothes piled on. He was armored against the germ, but had not succeeded in shutting out the disease. In some cases there was no food in the house. The sisters sent out for it, then prepared it and fed the people until they were able to do for themselves. We were welcomed, reports the sister, in every house, with only one exception. In this one home we inquired at the door if they had any sick. The father informed us that they had five in bed upstairs, but they did not need our help, as their patrons, the man was a pervert from the faith, had sent a nurse and they were properly cared for. Sadly the sisters' ads to of these children died at the end of the week. Out of the thirty-eight cases attended by the sisters there were only two deaths. Every morning, as the sisters appeared on the avenue, they were met by troops of kitties eager for the honor of a visit from the sisters, and each clan ready to guide them to its own particular tenement. After ten days of this nursing, cleaning, and cooking, the colony was getting back to normal life and native diet, and the sisters were free to give more time and help to the emergency hospitals at Renoir, Paoli, and Wayne, where six sisters served until October 31. In Renoir they worked in conjunction with the sisters of mercy from Renoir and Rosemont, taking charge of the afternoon day shift. In Paoli they had the day shift. In Wayne the night shift 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. End of Part 8 Part 9 of Work of the Sisters During the Epidemic of Influenza, October 1918, by Francis Edward Tersher. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part 9 Sisters of St. Joseph, Work and Private Homes, St. Anne's. Eighteen of the sisters from St. Anne's served in emergency hospitals, nine in number one, Homesburg, October 10th to 25th, and nine in number three, Philopetrian, October 10th to 29th. Besides the work in the hospitals, the sisters were called by the priests of the parish to visit people stricken in their homes. In one home the sisters found the mother dead, and a daughter very ill lying beside her. Downstairs, the son lay on a couch. He too was ill, but had to get out of bed when his mother was taken sick. At another home the mother of a family was in a serious condition. These poor people had not even a mattress. The father said he could not get one, so the sisters ordered one for him, also a change of linen. The sisters cleaned the house and washed the children and visited them every day, thus allowing the father to go to work. In another home the sisters cared for two motherless children. The father took care of them at night, but he had to attend to his work during the day. An aunt who had a charge of the home would not go near the children's room, so fearful was she of the disease. In another home a mother and two children had been lying fully clothed for four days with no one to go near them. St. Carthage's The calls here came from priests, doctors, and from the afflicted ones themselves. In many cases whole families were afflicted with the dread disease, and the sisters had to do cleaning, washing, cooking, as well as nursing. In one family, non-Catholics, the husband lay dead in one room, the wife very low in the next. Their relatives were afraid to visit them, and when finally they did come, after the dead body had been removed, they left their outer garments on the porch, so fearful were they of contagion. In another house the mother was dying. The people were strangers in the city, and the father seemed to be in despair. Two small children had had no attention for a week before the sisters took charge. The mother died, and it was some days before a coffin could be procured for the burial. A kind neighbor took care of the children for the poor afflicted father until they could be put in a Catholic home. One morning a non-Catholic woman came to the convent at 3.30 a.m. in an automobile, hoping thus to secure the sisters before they started on their daily rounds. The same day the sisters were summoned to a Jewish family where the son was very delirious. However, after going there and finding there was abundant help, the sisters went to a house where a young girl had died of pneumonia. On the day of her burial the father, mother, and three boys were stricken down. In this house were also a small child and a baby fourteen months old. No washing had been done, nothing cleaned after the girl's death. The sisters took charge of the house until the mother was able to get up. Then a girl was hired for the housework, and the sisters were relieved. Eight of the sisters of this convent did district nursing from house to house. St. Charles In visiting the homes of this parish, caring for the sick, cleaning, washing, and cooking, the sisters found quite as much of actual need and want among the well to do as in the poorest dwellings of the poor. In one sad case the sisters found a young woman who had strapped her husband to the bed. He was violently delirious. She herself was soon to become a mother. The husband was removed to the hospital and the sisters found a nurse. The child was born, but the mother did not live to see its face. She begged the sisters to remain with her to the last, saying, I want you, not the nurse. The sisters tell of a strange experience here. They were called to a boarding house where the husband was a Catholic, the wife a non-Catholic, though she had trained their son in our religion. The priest came to prepare the son for death. The mother then asked to be baptized. She died a Catholic. Later on the sisters of this woman came to get the body for burial. They asked for keys and went through the trunks. A few days later the sisters returned to see how things were going in the boarding house. They were met by a storm of invectives and charged with robbery. The incident of the sisters of the dead woman, the keys and the trunk, was recalled. This explained the loss. They had figuratively gone through the trunks and literally left nothing of value. The man humbly and sincerely apologized for his misplaced suspicion of the sisters. In another place the sisters found a young man, a Spaniard, married to a Negris. He could not speak a word of English. The sisters taught him to make aspirations in Latin. He asked to have these written down to aid his memory. Saint Columbus. A case was reported in the parish of Our Lady of Mercy. In this home a man and wife had been ill for two weeks, depending solely on help from the neighbors. They had been left sometimes for entire days with no care or help from without. No one to go near them. The woman seemed in a dying condition, too weak even to bear much bodily attention. After three days of the sisters' care and nursing she became normal in appearance and finally recovered. In another home the mother had died of the disease leaving five small children. These all and the father were ill when the sisters went there. The sisters took full charge of the house and family until a proper home was secured for the children. In another well-to-do family the sisters found five children all lying ill in different parts of the house and the mother in bed absolutely unconscious. The sisters remained there all day. Then they, the patients, were removed to Saint Columbus emergency, where all recovered. In another home a father and mother and child had lain ill for three days with no one to attend to their wants. The father was lying fully clothed, having been too weak to undress. The sisters remained here until the patients were able to do for themselves. Epiphany. The sisters were called to attend a sick lady at her home. They found that she had two daughters quite able to attend to her, but the father had forbidden them to go near their mother, fearing contagion. The sisters remained here one day, then gave their care to a more urgent case, a poor widow and her child, who had no one to help them. This poor mother died. The next case was one of direct poverty. Finding the door open, one of the sisters' rights, we entered. On the table was a loaf of bread and a mouse eating it. The place seemed to be headquarters for roaches and ants and creeping vermin. Going to the second floor, the sisters found in one room a bed and no other furniture. In the bed were two sick boys, one six, the other ten years old. In the next room was the mother, another boy and a baby girl, all seriously ill. The mother said that they had had nothing to eat since she had gone to bed the day before. The sisters procured food, cleaned bed linens, and all that was needed. Then they sent for a doctor and a priest. This poor house was soon in better order. Holy angels! In the first home visited by the sisters were a mother and five children, all very ill. The father and an old grandmother, almost blind, were the only ones to care for the sick and the work of the house. At the next house, to which the sisters were called by a Presbyterian minister, was a Polish family. Here were a mother and four children, ranging from six to eight years, all in bed, wearing what clothing they had. There was no coal, no bed linen, and only one bed cover. Three of the children had never been baptized. The father had just been taken to the Holmesburg Emergency, where he died the next day. He had had violent hemorrhages, and the condition of the house cannot be described. The non-Catholic neighbors were eager to help the sisters here. The sisters cleaned the house, washed the clothes, and succeeded in making the family comfortable. The children were baptized. An answer to a call from Abbington Hospital, two of the sisters went there. The first duty of one of the sisters was to baptize a dying infant. One of the nurses present asked a sister to teach her how to baptize, as it would come into her work. At another time, one of the doctors told the sisters that a baby had just been born, and asked them to baptize it. The sister explained that it should not be done, except in danger of death. The physician then asked for a fuller explanation, and seemed grateful for the information. There was a little girl, about ten, dying. The sister asked her, Do you believe in God? She answered, No. Sister spoke to her for some time, and finally the child said, Do you believe that? When the sister answered in the affirmative, the child replied, Then I believe it too. The sister gave her conditional baptism. Holy Cross, Mount Erie At this convent, the sisters prepared meals for sixty seminarians during twenty-four days. These students from Saint Charles Seminary had volunteered to dig graves for the dead who were lying unburied in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. In consequence of this work of providing for the students, announcement was made to the people that they should not call upon the sisters to care for the sick in the homes of the parish. The sisters did, however, attend some private cases. One case is reported in which a well-known businessman requested the sisters' care for the family of an employee. These people were not Catholics. When the sisters went to the house, a very small boy came to the door and opening it just far enough to make himself heard, said warningly, All in this house are sick. Well, replied the sisters, we've come to take care of them. They found the mother and four small boys very ill and the house in disorder. The sisters arranged the room and cleaned the house and cared for the patients. One of the little boys asked why the sisters wore that style of dress. The reason of the uniform was explained to him. Then he said, Your Catholics, aren't you? Catholics are best anyhow. All in this home recovered. In another home, a Jewish family, the mother of two small children, was very ill. She recognized the sisters and told them that she wanted their prayers. Later the husband succeeded in getting a professional nurse, but the lady begged the sisters not to leave her. She died the next day. Another case was one of extreme poverty, the sisters found a sick mother seated by the stove, holding a boy of thirteen in her arms. In the same room were two other sick children. There was no food in the house to prepare and no way to prepare it. The sisters went back to the convent and got all that was needed. The sisters went to this house every day until all were well. Later a letter came from this gentle poor family expressing sincere gratitude for the labor and tender care of the sisters. Immaculate Conception Many cases and most pathetic are reported from this parish, one in which the whole family was ill, mother, father, and children. One child in bed with its father died, and there was no place to put the body which had to be kept a week to await burial. October 12 two sisters went with the priest to a family, all ill. These people were well to do, but now no better off than the most abject poor. They could get no nurse. The sisters remained with them until nine p.m., when a woman was found to care for them. All here recovered. In the next home the sisters found a father and three little girls, ranging in age from nine to thirteen, all ill. They had been deserted by the mother. The father, a Russian, could understand no English. Two of the children had attended the sister's school since September. One of them died, making her first holy communion on her deathbed. The sisters now recall the devout interest of this little girl in all that was taught her as the sincere piety and innocence of a little saint. The sisters, with the priest, took the child's body to the undertaker's for burial. In another home the mother was dangerously ill, and the father seemed dazed with three little children in the kitchen. There was not even a basin in the house. The father went out and borrowed one. The sisters then washed the mother and cared for the children, one of them a baby. Next door they found conditions even worse. The mother and a boy had been ill for some days with absolutely no attendance. The sisters made these patients comfortable and cleaned the place. Then, going downstairs, they found three more children shivering with cold, and literally clothed only in a few rags. The mother here was soon to become a mother again. The sisters phoned for an ambulance. The policeman came and removed the mother to a hospital. The sisters then washed and dressed the children, and after great difficulties they got the father's consent to have them sent to the children's home bureau. In one family a father, mother, and seven children, six of the children were sick, the youngest, and infant only a few days old. The mother, a non-Catholic, had had no care since the birth of the child. The infant seemed to be hardly human, his arms and legs a mass of raw flesh. One sister took charge of the kitchen, the other of the bedroom. There were no clean linens for the beds. The supply at the convent was exhausted by previous demands, but the mother of one of the sisters came to the rescue and furnished everything necessary to make the place fit for human habitation. All in this home recovered, except one child, eighteen months old. The mother is now being instructed, and will be received into the church. A non-Catholic family living very near the sister's school had been ill for a week without attendance. The sisters heard of this and went to the house. They found a young man and his wife and a child, nine months old. The woman was huddled up in a chair, the man lying on a couch. He had been vomiting blood. There was no heat and no food in the house. The husband was later removed to the Homesburg emergency, where he died after a few days under the care of the sisters there. The wife was taken to the Howard Hospital. The sisters were taken care of the child and wondering what to do with it when a man entered and said to roughly, that's my son-in-law's baby, I'll take it. That ended the case. A limit to human gratefulness. St. Joseph's. From old St. Joseph's comes a touching description of a division of the community into the contemplatives, sister in charge of the house, and those too old to go out, who adore before the blessed sacrament, and active members who went to seek our Lord in the alleyways. On one occasion the sister cook, left alone at home, went into the street and got some children to come to the chapel and kneel before the blessed sacrament, while she prepared food for her associates of the active life. St. Leo's. The first case was in a family where the father and four children were sick with influenza. The poor mother had them all in one room, so as to be able better to attend to them. She had not laying down from Friday of one week until Tuesday of the following week. The neighbors, even the woman's own sister, refused to assist her in nursing. They would leave on the doorstep anything she called for out of the window. The sisters took charge of the patients while the mother retired for necessary rest. They cleaned the house, washed the soiled clothes, and left the bed linen in a disinfectant for two days. In the next home, father, mother, and six children were sick, attended only by the old grandmother, who was so lame that she had to put her crutch aside and crawl upstairs on her hands and knees. The sisters spent three days there. The mother was taken to the emergency hospital. She had been violently delirious, but became quite calm after the sisters took charge. One of the sisters contracted the disease in this home and was very ill for two weeks. In one family, both parents and two children were very sick. It was nearly a day before their sad plight was known. Then a neighbor phoned to the archbishop to ask that someone be sent there. When the sisters entered, they found a baby boy, three and a half years old, trying to give a drink to the sick. The sisters remained with this family day and night for a week. Another case was that of a Protestant young woman who had lain unattended from Sunday to Saturday. The conditions existing can hardly be described. There was no other woman in the house. The father was a cripple who could not climb the stairs and appeared to be under the influence of drugs. The neighbors called for assistance. Two sisters were sent. They washed the patient and put the bed into a more airy room. As the family could afford to pay for a nurse, the sisters urged the father to get one. They remained, however, after the nurse's arrival in order to see that the girl was made comfortable. Nearly all the sisters who attended this case contracted the disease or became prostrate from exhaustion. Part 10 of Work of the Sisters During the Epidemic of Influenza October 1918 by Francis Edward Tersher. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part 10 St. Michael's The first case to which the sisters were called was pathetic yet in part amusing. A poor little girl of fourteen was trying to keep house, to take care of her sick mother, and at the same time attend to six smaller children. The father, either crazed or drunk, had gone to get a death certificate for the sick wife. He returned with the certificate and imagined that his little girl was the undertaker come to bury the wife who was not dead. The sisters telephoned for an ambulance, but this legal stickler refused to go without a doctor's certificate. This was finally obtained and the man removed to the Philadelphia hospital. After a week he returned in his senses, the sisters say. He has taken the pledge and received the sacraments and is coming every week regularly to prove to the sisters that he is faithful to his promises. The sisters found one family, father, mother and three children, all very ill. There was no food, practically no clothing, no bedding, none of the comforts of home. The wife was not a Catholic and the sisters hesitatingly offered to get what was needed. To their surprise she gratefully accepted and even asked to have a badge of the sacred heart for herself and the others. All in this family recovered. In the next home the father had just died after two years' illness previous to the influenza. The mother and five children were sick in bed. A girl of eighteen was doing her best as housekeeper and nurse. All here recovered. In another case the sisters found a father and four children lying on the floor on an old mattress. They had no means to pay a doctor. The sisters went to one nearby, a non-Catholic. He came to the house at their request and gave his services free of charge. Hearing of the case of a family, the Protestants, where all were ill, the sisters called on the lady next door, also a Protestant, asking her assistants to get admission into the neighboring house. She received them at first very coldly and told them not to try to enter as the man of the house was bitterly prejudiced. But she added, if I get sick, force her way in here. Suddenly she broke down, began to cry, and said, Sisters, pray for a lost sister. The sisters tried to console her and are now keeping their promise of prayer hopeful for the woman's conversion. Mother of Consolation, Chestnut Hill. In one home the sisters found six little children, sick and very dirty. The father, a Protestant, had gotten out of bed after two weeks illness to try to earn some money for medicines. There was not a scrap of food in the house nor in a coal. The sisters procured medicine and food, but when they wished to arrange for the priests coming, the oldest girl was seriously ill. They could not find a single article of furniture to serve as a table or a fitting place for the blessed sacrament. In the next place visited, a little boy of eight informed the sisters that his mama and the children were sick. The sisters found the mother quite ill and peeping out from the blankets in a large bed, they saw six little black curly heads and in a crib at the foot of the bed a little baby. There was no coal, no food, no medicines and no money to buy them. A kind good man in the parish at the sister's request sent a quantity of coal and the sisters got medicine and food to ensure the health and comfort of the mother and her eight little ones. Calling at another house where the sisters had been told there was distress, they were met at the door by an old lady, too old to attend to household duties. She refused to let the sisters come in. Knowing, however, that sad conditions existed there as two of the family had been taken to the hospital and the man and wife were still in the house very ill, the sisters returned to this house the next day. They were met at the door by the ungracious greeting, I guess you might as well be working here as any place else. They went in, cleaned the house and prepared food. The old lady met them later and told them that she had the wash ready for them. The sisters did the washing and, as a consequence, returned to the convent to go to bed themselves for a four-week struggle with influenza. Conditions, reports one of the sisters in some places, were indescribable. Often there were no beds for the poor-afflicted victims, no bed-clothing, no linens, nothing but filth and rags. In one of these places the sisters made a tour of inspection to the second floor. They found a chubby four-year-old boy running quite a high temperature. They sent it once for a lady doctor who had been very attentive to the poor in the parish. She said the child had pneumonia. The sisters now set for the mother who was out. They could find neither a cup or a spoon in the house. Two of the sisters tried to arrange some sort of a bed for the poor little lad and his sister, also sick. Another went in search of the kitchen and found three other little ones who needed care. The kitchen was a mass of filth, caused partly by a stopped waste-pipe in the sink. There was nothing to do but put on her rubbers and sweep the accumulated dirt into the yard. Later the father and mother came home. The sisters told the mother plainly what were her duties to her children and the place which they ought to call home. The woman seemed to have taken the sister's word to heart, for when we returned the next day we found that she had purchased pots and pans and dishes, had cleaned the whole house, and gotten a real bed for the poor little patients. Drink bears the blame for conditions in this family, but whose is the responsibility? We're all capable of human decency and Christian restraint. St. Phillips On the first day after permission was given the sisters to care for the sick, October 10, six sisters at St. Phillips visited 30 families. Money had been given to the sisters by the rector and members of the parish to be used for the relief of the sick. From the businessmen of this section came broths, oranges, lemons, alcohol, whiskey, buttermilk, junket, and gelatin to be used where the sisters found need. Many families depended entirely upon what was thus provided for them from the convent. The authorities had decided to open an emergency hospital in Lithuania and Hall and the sisters were asked to take charge, but the plan was not realized, the hospital was not opened. The work of the sisters in this convent was therefore wholly devoted to the sick in their homes. Almost everywhere on the streets the sisters met with some token of respect to prove that their mission of mercy and charity was recognized. Even the ornamental props at saloon corners, it is said, honored them with a salute. At one house the sisters knocked and pounded in vain. A serious case had been reported there. They persevered and finally the wife, a mere child in appearance, came rubbing her eyes. She had fallen asleep, worn out by long watching. The man was cold as ice and near death. He died that evening after repeating the act of contrition with the sisters. His last words were, thank God the sisters were here. In another house the sisters found an Irish girl married to a Chilean. Nursing had appalled on the man who had called in a party of his compatriots. They were making good cheer in the room where the poor wife lay apparently dying. She begged the sisters to have the priest. The sisters sent for the priest and requested the man to dismiss his companions. The sisters had been warned that it would be dangerous to go to this house. They braved the danger, and as a consequence the poor Irish girl wife received the sacraments and later recovered. Possibly the fact may move the man from the Southern Hemisphere to a better sense of human propriety. In one house of a Lutheran family the sisters found the bodies of four persons who had died of the epidemic waiting for burial. They were sent to an upper room in this house where they found a Catholic young man very sick. This young man had nursed the whole family giving them his clothing, even his bed linens, before he himself became a victim. The recovery of this young man is attributed both by himself and the doctor in charge to the care of the sisters. Our Lady of Victory From Our Lady of Victory the sisters report a case worthy of note. In answer to a phone call the sisters went to an apartment house where they were met by a lady, the wife of the sick man who had sent for them. She told them that she was not a Catholic and sent them to her husband's room. They found a young man surrounded by every evidence of wealth and refinement but very ill. For three days they attended this case receiving the visits of half a dozen doctors sent by his parents to bring relief. He yearned to see his parents and his brothers but fear of the dread disease kept them away. The last great specialist who came pronounced the case hopeless. An hour after the man died. The wife remained in another room while the sisters prayed with the dying man but she begged the sisters to remain with her that night. They promised to return early the next morning. When they returned they found her very ill, a victim of influenza, though she had not entered the room where her dead husband now lay. Not one of the relatives of either side came to see the sick or the dying in this case. Dread of the disease seems to have deadened all sense of affection. Only the priest who came to bless the dead man's body, the sisters and the doctors in attendance, crossed the threshold of this apartment. The woman that became dangerously ill but the sisters took charge and nursed her back to health. When the sisters were leaving she said, Sisters, when you came here I did not receive you very graciously because I believe the tales I have so often heard of Catholic nuns. Now I shall surely make known what you Catholic nuns have done for me when both relatives and friends stood back for fear. St. Vincent's Germantown Twelve families in this parish were practically dependent upon the sisters for the care of the sick, the care of the house and meals. The society of St. Vincent de Paul supplied necessary food and nourishment. Beside these about twenty families were visited and aided by the sisters. In one home the mother and children were sick. Two children in bed with the mother, a third lying on a couch. They had not called a physician fearing that they might be sent to a hospital. The sisters feared that one child would die but all finally recovered. In one case the sisters visited a non-Catholic family. They expressed surprise at the kindness of the sisters for those not of our faith. The sisters gave these people metals of our blessed mother and taught them how to pray. They appeared to be very grateful and said that the house seemed to be a different home since the sisters came. In another house where five were afflicted, three died. On one occasion the sisters called it a wrong house. The woman who opened the door seemed terrified, said there is no one sick here and hurriedly shut the door in the sisters face. In one house the sisters found a young wife with a baby ten days old ill with the disease. The husband lay dead in another room. Another case is reported under the sisters' care in which a young woman aged twenty-two died and while her body was being prepared for burial her sister, four years her senior, died. The brothers of these two sisters had to dig their graves. Visitation The sisters in this convent gave aid to about forty families at the call of the priests and the people themselves. A diet kitchen was fitted up in the school where ladies of the parish prepared food and nourishment for the sick. The sisters also prepared food in private homes and taught those who were well how to prepare nourishment for the sick. The school children took an active part in carrying food to the homes of the afflicted, handing it in at the doors and windows as directed. At one house where distress had been reported the sisters secured entrance with difficulty. When at last the kitchen door was opened they were met by a stench so offensive that they had to retreat to recover breath. The man of the house told them that his wife who was also sick had gone to the house of her daughter some squares away to care for her. On investigating the sisters found that the offensive smell came from the dead body of another daughter which had been lying in the house for a week, the people being too poor to get an undertaker. The sisters reported this case to the board of health. The body was removed the next day. One night a woman reported to the sisters that a family nearby, Methodists, though surrounded by respectable neighbors of their own persuasion, was in dire distress. No one would help them from dread of contagion. The sisters went to this home and gave the necessary care to a stricken mother and child. About ten o'clock that night the husband returned home. He was tearfully grateful for what the sisters had done in care of his wife and child. He himself had had to go to his work leaving his sick ones alone and unattended. You, he said to the sisters, have come to me unselfishly when I was deserted by my own. In another home there was no one to admit the sisters. They entered the house and found the mother on a cot surrounded by four little ones. The father who had received the last sacraments was in the next room with another sick child. The sisters took charge of the house, bathed and attended the patients, and cared for them until all recovered. Another home was reported in which both parents and three children were sick and a little girl of ten acting as house mother and nurse for all. Here the house had, first of all, to be cleaned. The sisters did the washing, prepared the food, nursed the sick. The sister who writes this report adds touchingly, I thank God that I have been favored to do this little good. My companion in this case took the disease and died a very holy death. She has received her crown. I am still waiting to be called. St. Mary's Academy, Logan. Two of the sisters in this convent assisted families in distress in the private homes of this neighborhood. Ten sisters went to the Jewish hospital following an urgent appeal for help, which was made through the medium of the most reverend archbishop. In this hospital the work of the sisters extended to every branch of service. They washed dishes, arranged and carried trays, helped in the laundry, and cared for the sick. Someone that seems to have been apprehensive about the menial work of the sisters and it was reported to the superior. Her answer was quite naturally, in substance, the sisters were called not to choose their work but to help. No work is menial that is not done for a mean motive. The sister's motive is the love of God and the love and relief of suffering brother men. Chester Linnwood at St. Michael's. Two sisters were sent to the city hospital in response to an urgent call for help. The remaining sisters did district nursing and cared for families in absolute need. It was not always poverty, writes one of the sisters, that left the people destitute during the epidemic. It was the fear and dread of the scourge on the part of kindred and neighbors who ordinarily would have cared for friends. You have come and answered to our prayers was the greeting of one family in dire need. Another poor man told the sisters that he had prayed God all night for someone to come and give him a drink of water. The sisters were met one day by a gentleman in an automobile who begged them to go with him to a little village about two miles away. Two sisters finally went with him. They found conditions very serious. Even the poor babies had no milk. The sisters set to work caring for the sick, procuring what was needed through the benefactor of the community, the employer of the people of the village, and in God's goodness no one in this little village died. Though many were in critical stage of the disease when the sisters reached there. Lenwood. Here the sisters waited on the sick in private homes. The district nurses called for the sisters when they found obstinate patients. In one case a girl in this model village absolutely refused to obey matron or nurse though she was in danger of pneumonia. They sent for a sister who soon had the girl's promise to do all that was required of her. She kept this promise faithfully. In one home a young mother with three small children was dangerously ill. The sisters of the sick woman came but went away saying they saw no danger. The sisters then took charge of the patient, the house, and the children. The mother died. It was in this house that sister Mary Charles took the disease while caring for the children. She lingered nine days in great agony, then died, resigned a most beautiful debt. Conchachan, St. Matthew's. Four sisters went to St. Patrick's Emergency Hospital Philadelphia. Four were invited by the director of the board of health to assist at the Baptist emergency conchachan. The ladies in charge of the emergency also requested the aid of the sisters. All that is the director and the ladies, non-Catholics. One Sunday morning a foreigner came to the convent and a gig to ask that a sister ride with him to a family in distress. Two sisters went with him. They found two little children trying to start a fire. The father with pneumonia was in bed, also a boy, both fully dressed. The mother and the baby, 18 months old, were sick in the next room. The sisters spent four days here going back and forth and despite the unfavorable conditions all the patients recovered. Among the sad cases which the sisters met was the following. As they were returning to the convent, a Polish woman asked them to go to another family in distress. As the sisters entered the front door, they found crepe and candelabra evidences of a funeral. The mother in this home and her child had been buried the day before. Going to the second floor they found a man and a boy in very serious condition, the boy being delirious. All the windows were shut tight and scattered in various places about the room were glasses of sour milk and lemonade. The remains of cake, crackers, and other food were on the floor, the window sills, and even in the bed. The boy had had hemorrhages and the bed was in a frightful condition. As a first step, they had the beds moved to such a position that they could open the window. Then they phoned to the doctor's wife. A trained nurse came to their assistance and the patients were made comfortable by the removal of the soiled linen and the giving of medicine. The sisters cleaned the room and gave nourishment. They then sent for the ambulance. Both patients were taken to the emergency hospital where they died shortly after. Hecturesville, Pennsylvania, St. Kieran's. On October 11th, from the headquarters of the Red Cross in Potsville, came a hurry call for the sisters to help in the Minersville Emergency Hospital. Two sisters went to the hospital and remained all night. The hospital was established in two tents pitched on a vacant lot. The sisters were stationed in a tent for women and children. That night they prepared seven for death, three of whom died before morning. All the patients had the disease in its most virulent form. There had been but one nurse in the tent, and as many of the patients were violently delirious, the sisters were very much needed. The sisters took charge of afflicted families in the parish. In some homes, every member of the family was sick. As they entered one house, the father cried out, Oh, sisters, I have prayed to the Sacred Heart to send someone to give me a drink of water. The sisters remained all day in that home, caring for the sick, making broths, washing and changing the linens. At night the grandfather took charge. The father died. In some places there was only one bed in the house. The sisters procured to cots and separated the patients. One happy effect of the work of the priests and sisters here has been to break down the antagonism that had existed between the church and the public school authorities. Jenkins Town Immaculate Conception The sisters here helped in the Abington Hospital and also did district nursing in the parish. At the hospital they baptized a colored man who died shortly after. They also prepared two white men for the sacraments. One sister who nursed several colored women who died reports that she sent them to God as clean as she could, both physically and spiritually. One Italian objected strenuously to having his face washed. His reason was given, I don't want to be washed, I was washed yesterday. The nurses here told the sisters that the patient eagerly watched for their coming every morning. The assistance of the sisters was not confined to the wards. They worked also in the laundry and in the diet kitchen. The sisters received a letter of grateful acknowledgement from the hospital authorities after the peril of the epidemic had passed and they had returned to schoolwork. The Sisters of St. Joseph have 69 mission houses, including those in the diocese of Harrisburg, Trenton and Baltimore, according to a summary compiled from the records of the sisterhood in which the number of sisters engaged in relief work during the epidemic is given, and the places where they served there were 167 Sisters of St. Joseph detailed for work in general and emergency hospitals. Sixty sisters served in other institutions, not counting those in ordinary charge of such institutions, 186 nursing and caring for the afflicted in private homes. There was one point of peculiar trial to the members of those communities which were visited by death, which deserves notice and claims or sympathy. It was the mental suffering and silent resignation which the death notice brought to every mission house and its individual members when a sister was called to her reward. There is a kinship of spirit of mind and affection next only to the closer ties of family and blood existing between the members of communities of men and women who have been associated in the training of the novitiate in a mutual restraint and self-discipline of following the same rules of life and daily observance. In the ordinary course of a community's life the death notice is often not unexpected, usually not a shock of surprise, but conditions during those days and weeks of strain added much to the natural pain of separation in the death of a loved associate in life and religion. Now as the notice comes in of another dear sister's death, perhaps by phone and not unlooked for, there was an added pain in the thought which came to many individual associates of life and work in religion. The thought that that dear familiar form, the mortal frame of one, who had been perhaps not only a sister in religion, but a sympathetic friend, a confidant, one who knew how to lighten burdens and smooth the little troubles of life, may now not have even the poor tribute of the church's ritual in the chapel of the mother house, from the mission house to the grave with no consolation but the trustful prayer and the thought of her good life and her work for the master. During the epidemic, while the mother house at Westchester was under quarantine, nine bodies of departed sisters were taken from their missions to the cemetery at Westchester for burial. End of Part 10