Marjorie Atkinson
1919 – 1919
Stealthily, quietly
Gathered many living
worldwide.
Perfect conditions prevailed…
WW1 global troop movement,
Vulnerability of the healthy young,
Overcrowding,
Lack of treatments,
All encouraged this scourge.
Bodies piled up in makeshift morgues
before the virus ended its march.
My mother proudly announced,
’I caught Spanish ‘Flu
and lived through it’.
Many times in childhood I wondered,
’Why, oh why,
Did she survive?’
