Anna Marie “Nancy May” Long | Family Stories from the 1918

She recalled seeing the cart come down the street to collect the bodies.

Kensington, Philadelphia.

I remarked to my mother that I didn’t see anyone in the “near” branches of the family tree who died in the 1918 Flu and she told me my Nana- Anna Marie “Nancy May” Long [nee Feeney] who was born 1905 and raised in the Kensington section of Philadelphia- recalled seeing the cart come down the street to collect the bodies people had lying in front of their houses.

Nana’s address in the 1920 U.S. Census was on Diamond Street between N. Bodine and N 3rd. Both her parents were Irish immigrants who came to Philadelphia ca 1890.

Nana was born November 17^th, 1905 and lived until July 8^th, 1985.

I have some great older photos of her, but nothing as early as 1920, I don’t think the family had money for a camera until 1930ish. By then they lived in the Olney section of Philadelphia.

From left to right: “Nancy May” Long (nee Feeney,) her first cousin Fr. David Walsh, her sister Marie V. Acker (nee Feeney) and David’s sister, Margaret “Peg” Walsh in the late 1920s. *Courtesy of Annamarie Hessman.*

Contributed by Annamarie Hessman, Granddaughter of Anna Marie “Nancy May” Long.