A Roxborough grandmother and the loss of her mother and grandmother.

Roxborough, Philadelphia.

My name is Kathy Conlow O’Donnell, I grew up in the Manayunk/Roxborough neighborhoods of Philadelphia, close to where generations of my family lived and died.

Growing up, my paternal grandmother, Bernadette Ferris Conlow lived less than a mile from our house. My siblings and I spent a lot of time at her home. My Grandmom Bernie as we referred to her was an amazing storyteller and would fascinate us for hours with tales from her youth. One of the most memorable was how her mother, Margaret Lyons Ferris passed away when Bernie was only 5 years old.

My grandmother had four siblings and she was right in the middle, two older bothers and a younger brother and a sister. The young Ferris family lived with their paternal grandmother on Shurs Lane in Manayunk and were members of Saint John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church. It’s a good chance they attended the Liberty Loan Parade to raise funds for WWI held on September 28, 1918, in Center City Philadelphia. The Parade attended by 200,000 people went on even though the local government knew that the flu was spreading. Within weeks the city was decimated with illness and deaths from Spanish Influenza.

Here’s the story as I was told:

My grandmother said she remembers sitting with her siblings on the front stoop and being told that her mother went to heaven. Margaret Lyons Ferris was just 32 when she passed from Massive Bronchopneumonia on October 7, 1918 leaving behind a young husband and family. Family lore says that she died on the hospital floor with her own blanket and pillow that she brought with her from home.

While researching my family tree on ancestry.com, I discovered what my grandmother didn’t tell me, that her maternal grandmother, Margaret McDonald Lyons passed away the very next day at her home 1830 East Albert Street, in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

After learning this information I could only imagine that my Great grandfather decided at the time not to tell his young children that their grandmother passed away the very next day after they lost their mother.

We as a family always thought that Margaret Ferris passed away at Roxborough Memorial Hospital, but her Death Certificate found on Ancestry.com says she passed at St. Mary’s Hospital, which is in the Kensington section of Philadelphia near where her mother lived. One can assume that Margaret was taken to her mother to be cared for and was sent to the hospital from there.

As I sit here now during the 2020 Corona Virus Pandemic, I feel that the deaths of my family members were not in vain. I was aware where this could lead and started taking precautions early, as people around me thought I was overreacting. Currently as this Virus takes hold of our country, I am still healthy. I’m pray this Virus goes away as quick as it came, and that the lessons from 1918 and 2020 will be learned around the globe.

Contributed by Kathy Conlow O’Donnell, as told to her by Bernadette “Grandmom Bernie” Ferris Conlow.