“…too weak to stand or crawl, dragged himself on his stomach to a garden area by the house.”

Northern Liberties, Philadelphia.

My Grandfather’s name was Joseph Andrew Lopko and he was born in Wilkesbarre, PA.in 1899, or 1900. I know he fought in France during The First World War and had heard that being underaged, he lied to do so. His ailing mother had given him the responsibility of caring for his younger brother who was considered then, to be ‘mildly retarded’. I’m embarrassed to admit I never researched the economy from that time, but it must not have been great.

My Grandfather told me stories of how he would take his brother, hopping railroad boxcars and travel around the country. I believe it was too much responsibility to entrust to a 14 year old and the prospect of joining the army to fight abroad, probably seemed more like an escape than an act of honor.

When my Grandfather was discharged, he returned and settled in Philadelphia and would have contracted the flu and experienced the story I will relay to you. I’m afraid I don’t know what the address, or even the neighborhood was at the time, but I can tell you that as far back as I remember it being referenced, our family residences were always in the ‘Northern Liberties’ area.

I was between the ages of 6 to 10 when my Grandfather would look out of the window of his house on Bristow Place and I knew it was a good time to ask him to tell me of those old stories. On a rare occasion he could be coaxed into a verse of a French song he and his comrades would sing while trying to survive being bombarded with mustard gas. I was too young to appreciate the irony that he had probably felt so lucky to make it back home alive, only to almost die at the hands of the flu. He told me how he had contracted the flu and at the point of death, managed to roll himself out of a bed on the second floor of the house where he lived, down the stairs and too weak to stand or crawl, dragged himself on his stomach to a garden area by the house. He said as he lay there hoping someone would come by to save him, he realized he had stopped right under a grape arbour. He said he laid there for three days, eating only the grapes that had fallen on the ground near him, until someone finally came to help. He said if it hadn’t been for those grapes, he would have died.

Contributed by David Toren, Grandson of Joseph Andrew Lopko.