“We used to lay in bed and read all the Death notices to see who died from the flu that we had know”

Germantown, Philadelphia

My aunt recorded all of my Great- Grandmother’s stories on a tape recorder then typed them up, which included her stories from the flu pandemic. My Great Grandmother was Margaret Vance Balbirnie Ross (Ross was her married name) and she was born in 1898. There are quite a few stories she told about her days growing up in Germantown, Philadelphia above their pharmacy on or around the corner of Wayne and Chelten streets. She even sold bonds during the war!

 Below is an transcription of the original recording:

“During the flu epidemic (The Swine Flu) we all had it, each in a different way. Ethel had a back ache, I had an upset stomach, Grace a sore throat. We used to lay in bed and read all the Death notices to see who died from the flu that we had known. Next door to our house was a Doctor Smith. He died and Dr. Adams the dentist from Maplewood Avenue came over as a pallbearer; he had a white handkerchief to his nose and never went into the house during the viewing. He later married the widow of Dr. Smith. She was loaded with money; her name was Kathryn Sidebottom Smith. He was the same dentist who had us kids running there to his office for temporary fillings so he could run up the dentist bill, which he took out in medicine for his office.

We were just lucky during that epidemic as so many young people we all knew didn’t recover; there were n miracle drugs or penicillin as there is now. This was in 1917-1918.”

Contributed by Jennifer Boone, great granddaughter of Margaret Vance Balbirnie Ross.

Editor’s Note: A search of our death records revealed a George Lewis Smith, MD of 4538 Wayne Ave.- that address is about 1 mile from the intersection of Wayne and West Chelten Aves. On his death certificate his wife is listed only as “Mrs. Smith” but on his burial record she is indeed listed as Catherine L. Sidebottom, the widow who later married the dentist in this story.