text: My grandmother was 16 years old in the fall of 1918 and was going to school and was nanny to 3 children. She lived outside of Chicago at the time. The man of the house (I don't know his real name so I will call him Carl) worked in Chicago. One of the 3 children was a baby who was under a year old (think the child might have been between 2-6 months old). The child became seriously ill and died in my grandmother's arms. The cause of death was later determined to be the swine flu. A couple of days later Carl became ill (several of his co-workers also got ill) and a doctor came to the house and confirmed that he also had the swine flu. The doctor told my grandmother she probably would come down the flu due to her contact with Carl. She ended up taking care of him because his wife and the maid refused to go near him as they were afraid of getting sick. The wife, maid and the other 2 children stayed downstairs and quarantined themselves the best they could. The doctor wished both of them luck and left. My grandmother told me that the swine flu could be described as the worst flu you could get. She started coughing and felt like someone was trying to slowly choke her from time to time. She felt like this flu was trying to suck the life out of her. The virus showed no mercy. If this flu didn't get a foot hold into your lungs or settle in your lungs, you generally survived it if you were healthy, although sometimes a healthy person would die. In my grandmother's case, she had a cough for about 24 hours with difficulty in breathing. I'm not a doctor but it didn't settle in the lungs as my grandmother said it felt like her lungs were fighting the virus off for about 24 hours. Then by 48 hours, it felt like her lungs had won the battle but she was very tired. Within 72 hours, my grandmother felt fine. She was fully recovered in a 4 days. Once Carl saw that my grandmother got sick, he asked her what would happen if he died? What would happen to his wife, children? He said this over and over again. At this point he had a high fever was coughing and had difficulty breathing. Probably similar to what my grandmother felt, except his was a lot worse and lasted about 4 days. Never got any worse which was probably why he survived. My grandmother at one point had to leave the room for a while before she starting crying thinking about what he had said. He also was having a hard time breathing. At one point my grandmother wondered if he was going to survive because the flu was so bad. My grandmother prayed that she as well as Carl would recover and that this terrible flu virus would end. The next day my grandmother felt better. She was only sick for about 3 days and recovered very quickly. Carl took about 10 days to fully recover. My grandmother and Carl recovered and never suffered any permanent injuries from the illness. The doctor told my grandmother her case was mild and Carl's was a moderate case of the flu. From what my grandmother told me, I would hate to see what a severe case of the flu was. The wife, the maid and the two children never got the flu or got sick from it. I believe the reason why my grandmother and Carl didn't suffer more serious complications from the flu was because they were quarantined in the same house. They weren't exposed to others outside the home once the quarantine was imposed for 2 weeks. Again, I'm no doctor but I believe that this made a difference between Carl living and Carl dying. Everyone in the house had been exposed and they were also quarantined in the downstairs area of the house. They weren't in a field hospital where many sick people were and a doctor came every couple of days to check up on them, whereas in a field hospital, you wouldn't get this type of personalized care. This I believe at least in the case of Carl made a difference between life and death. It probably did with his neighbors as well. Also if Carl had died, the financial situation of the family would be in distress. Because they were upper income, they had a safety net to a certain degree. They wouldn't have ended up on the street as they had family who could help them. Those who were poor or just getting by didn't have any safety net and even if their family wanted to help them, it would be difficult if they were also in the same situation. My grandmother having grown up poor was more exposed to living conditions that today would be considered to be unacceptable. She had a strong immune system and I don't remember her ever getting the flu or a cold. She said after she got the swine flu, she never had another respiratory infection or illness again. I don't know if was everyone's experience but I imagine those who survived this had very strong immune system. Even when she was dying of cancer decades later (1984) in a nursing home , she never got a cold, flu or pneumonia which was common when someone is dying. She probably would have survived if she was in a field hospital. However, she lucked out being where she was when the flu hit. The family that my grandmother lived in were upper income (upper middle class) and most of the people in the neighborhood who got sick survived. My grandmother also had access to fresh air which also could have made a difference as fresh air was seen as being good if you were sick. Now we are facing a pandemic which is very serious. The description of the cornavirus 19 sounds similar. Please be careful out there.