I asked my father if there was a house fire and he said “No, they all perished during the epidemic.”

Delaware County, PA and Philadelphia, PA.

As a child I remember going to the St. Thomas cemetery in Chester Heights, Delaware County to visit my grandfather’s grave. His name was Joseph (Giuseppe) Curzi, Born 1887 in Italy. He died during the influenza of 1918.

He left my grandmother who was in her early twenties with 4 children all under the age of 5. My father,  Caesar John Curzi, born 1915, was 3 years old when his father died, and because he was then considered a fatherless boy he was able to attend the Stephen Girard College in Philadelphia when he was 8 years old in 1923. He left Girard College when he was 17 years old and got a job at Westinghouse as a tool maker, the trade he learned at the school. I remember visiting the school on Founder’s Day.

The one story I always remember is that there is a large headstone next to my grandfather’s grave with at least 7 to 8 (same family) names on it with 1918 as date of death. I asked my father if there was a house fire and he said “No, they all perished during the epidemic.”

Both of my grandparents were immigrants from Italy and when they arrived in the states they settled in the Brandywine Summit area. After my grandfather’s death my grandmother’s brother moved her to Philadelphia where she lived for the rest of her life. The ironic thing is that after being raised in Philadelphia, I married, moved to Italy, returned to the states, and now live very close to the road where my father was born.

Now experiencing my own pandemic of 2020 I can so relate to the fear and uncertainty that my grandmother faced regarding her future. The difference however is that my grandmother lived in a very rural area (now fully developed) alone with 4 very young children, no stores nearby to shop for necessities, no means of transportation and was very poor.  I am a 76 year old widow, living comfortably with lots of family around me for support, so there is no comparison, only great admiration for what my very young grandmother and her generation had to endure during those horrific times.

Contributed by Christina Curzi Fantini, granddaughter of Joseph (Giuseppe) Curzi.