A Lesson in Change: My Grandmother’s Journey Through the Flu Epidemic by Harriet Major

My Grandmother’s Baptist Beliefs

My maternal Grandmother, Mary Sehested Schultz, was a strong Baptist woman who came to our country at the age of eighteen. As I understand it, Baptist folks at the time were, and still are, very much anti-liquor, and my Grandmother was a strong advocate of this position.

The 1918 Flu and an Unlikely Remedy

As it happened, she was one of the victims of the flu epidemic in 1918 and was close to death from this disease. My parents lived with my Grandparents briefly after my father was discharged from the Army, and my Grandmother claimed that he saved her life with his recipe for a very strong liquor hot toddy which he prepared for her more than several times.

Beliefs Can Change at Pivotal Moments

Interesting to me how life can change some of our strongest beliefs when we deem them necessary.

—Harriet Major

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*Harriet Major submitted this story as part of the Heritage Task Force’s call for stories from the year 1918 in celebration of our sesquicentennial year in 2019. Formatted for blog publication by Katrina Schmidt.