Family name spotted on the walls of Spit Spreads Death.

Kensington, Philadelphia.

I received an email from a friend that had visited The Mutter Museum on a whim. He said he had long been intrigued by the Museum but had rarely ventured into Center City Philadelphia. He was at the exhibit – Spit Spreads Death: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 in Philadelphia. 

While examining the displays the name of a young victim jumped out at him –

Mary E. Eife

2663 N Orianna St

Born      3/6/1901

Died       11/9/1918

Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Buried   Fernwood Cemetery

Mary was my Great-Aunt, my grandfather’s younger sister. My grandfather, Sam Eife died in 1979 at the age of 88. He too was afflicted with the Spanish flu. He often spoke of his sister Mary, she was sickly as a child and had a difficult early life.

At the time of her death she was living with my grandfather, himself then a young husband in a small row house near Orianna St. and Lehigh Ave. The household comprised Sam and my grandmother, Rose; Rose’s Aunts- Mary and Rose from Ireland; Sam and Rose’s two children, Sam’s two younger brothers: Charlie and Walter, and Mary.

Sam’s mother, Josephine had been living there also but died of pneumonia in Feb of 1918, leaving Sam to raise the surviving siblings. Sam had the flu at the same time as Mary, she was taken to Woman’s Hospital and Sam was taken to nearby Episcopal Hospital on Lehigh Ave. Sam said that he was told by the doctor’s that the biggest factor in his survival was that he was an athlete and was well conditioned. I write this brief story to put a face on one of the victim’s, a young woman I’ve never met but still think of  as my Great-Aunt Mamie. All of those that came before are respected and valued still.

Contributed by Ricke Eife, Mary’s great-nephew.