Dying of a Broken Heart—and the Flu

Passyunk Square, Philadelphia

My great-grandmother, Carmela Jaffola Alessandroni, died in the flu epidemic in 1918 in Philadelphia two weeks after her daughter, Lena, 26, died, leaving behind a husband and two small children.

Lena was the seventh of Carmela’s eight children. Growing up, I was told by family members that Carmela died of a broken heart when she lost her daughter, but I came to find out she also died of the flu.

Mother and daughter both died in Carmela and Peter’s row home at 1216 Reed Street where they had moved when their fortunes improved. The  three story brick row house was spacious and was across from a pretty park.  It was just two blocks off of Broad Street where the city, despite health officials warnings, had staged a big WWI bond parade on Sept. 28, 1918. This spread the flu which killed 20,000 people in Philadelphia—the most fatalities in any U.S. city.

The physician who signed Carmela’s death certificate was Dr. Joseph Armao who was married or would soon marry Julie, Carmela and Peter’s youngest daughter.

At the time, Carmela’s son John was serving in the Army and was stationed in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. When his sister Lena died on October 4, John was able to attend the funeral, but two weeks later, when his mother Carmela died, his superiors would not give him permission to attend her funeral.

Carmela and her husband Pierluigi grew up in Capestrano, Italy. Peter, as he would be known in the U.S., emigrated in 1889 and sent for Carmela and their children the next year. The ship they were to arrive on was sunk, and Peter thought he lost his family. Fortunately, they had missed the ship and taken another. My grandfather Joseph (John’s older brother) said in a newspaper interview years later: “I often think of my mother on that three-week journey coming to America with six children under her wing. What courage that took.”

Lena (1892) and Giulia (1894) were born after the family settled in Philadelphia. The early years in this country were difficult, but John, Joseph, and a third brother, Eugene, eventually all became attorneys. In 1927 Eugene became the first Italian American judge in Philadelphia.

Carmela and Peter’s daughters married and had children. Sadly, while her siblings’ families prospered, it would appear that Lena’s did not fare as well without a mother.

In 1920 Lena’s widower, Antonio Volpe married Stella Tomasco- his sister-in-laws’ sister.  A marriage of convenience that lasted more than 50 years, family said. The  couple raised Anthony and Marie in Havertown, Pa.  Marie’s grandson Frank Antinucci said, they had little communication with the Alessandronis. Marie and stepmom, Stella had a poor relationship and Frank said “he wished his mother’s “real” mother had survived.

Eugene died in 1966. His wife and daughter had died, so his sizable estate was divided among his surviving siblings or, if they were deceased, their children. My grandfather Joseph, who was the attorney for the estate told me that Lena’s children were the neediest.

Story and photograph contributed by Sally Alessandroni Downey, great-granddaughter of Carmela.

Images: From Record Group #11, Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1906–1966, courtesy of Pennsylvania State Archives; scanning and indexing by Ancestry.com.