“When they lied down, they died, they died!“

Fox Chase, Philadelphia.

As relayed to Nancy Hill by Nancy Washburne, Granddaughter of Adelheide Mueller:

When Nancy Washburne was a little girl (born in 1935) her grandmother- Adelheide Müller got very sick with a fever. The family was trying to get her to rest, but she wouldn’t lie down or get in bed, saying quite panicked “When they lied down, they died, they died!” This was apparently in reference to the pandemic. Her neighbors who caught the flu and died had apparently all laid down, while those who stayed upright and moving survived. 

So; when she caught a fever later in life, she would refuse to go to bed, instead wrapping herself in a blanket and sitting on the radiator to sweat it out. The lived in Fox Chase, NE Philadelphia- Aldelheide had emigrated from Saxony, now Germany and was a skilled seamstress and tatter- a maker of lace.

Contributed by Nancy Hill, granddaughter of Nancy Washburne, great- great granddaughter of Adelheid Mueller.