Wear a mask. Stay vigilant. Darker days are ahead.

 We are tired of Covid 19, and we’re tired of wearing masks.

 When my daughter Christie was a tiny girl, I used to take her on long walks. One day we were far from the house, and most of the trip home was uphill.

“Mommy, I’m tired of walking.”

“Try running for a change.” I believed she was bored—emotionally tired but not physically exhausted.

“Okay.” She ran most of the way home. Uphill.

Since my husband and I are tired of wearing masks, we’ve decided to double our efforts. We’re ordering better masks.

Let’s face it. We cannot stop resisting Covid because we’re tired of doing it, tired of hearing about it, tired of wearing masks. We must keep protecting ourselves because we have risk factors—potential co-morbidities. All the people we know either have conditions that could make them susceptible to the most severe forms of the disease or have family members who are fragile.

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During the months of isolation, I’ve written a novel that includes references to the flu of 1918.  Letter from Belleau Wood shows scenes of World War I. It also takes a close look at the flu, which killed more people than the Great War did.

Researching the influenza pandemic, I found an intriguing and amusing source of information about masks. Resistance to wearing masks is neither new nor unique. Here is a fact gleaned from an article in History.com about mask wearing.

1918 Spanish Flu Mask Wearing Resistance

 The term Spanish flu is inaccurate. The 1918 flu did not start in Spain. (To label a disease process by using the name of a nation is a racial slur, regardless of where the pandemic began.) The first recorded infection of the 1918 influenza was at Camp Funston, a division of Fort Riley, Kansas, on March 4, 1918. News didn’t flow freely because the United States and other countries were fighting the Great War. Since Spain was neutral, the Spanish press freely reported the disease; therefore, it became known as the Spanish flu.

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In Letter from Belleau Wood, Trudy goes to college. One of her roommates, Marlowe, has a cousin Orville, who is stationed at Camp Funston. He’s a Kansas farm boy, compelled to work in the army base hospital. He writes letters to Marlowe, who reads them to Trudy and their other two roommates.  

An Excerpt from One of Orville’s letters:

       Dear Cousin,

Nurse said, we’re having a flu epidemic here. It started out when one of the cooks came down sick with chills and fever and a cough. He didn’t have measles. He said he ached all over.

It’s flying through the camp like a dust storm. Men have a high fever and complain of aching everywhere. They have the symptoms of a bad cold. So far, you’ve missed it. Could be you’re immune to it.

Most of the cases have lasted less than a week. Some of the soldiers are well within two or three days.

We’re wearing masks now, but everybody’s still getting sick.

What I need you to do is go through the ward and give the men aspirin powders every four hours throughout your shift. Every time you give them medicine you must require them to drink a glass of water. Make a notation on the chart at the end of the patient’s bed. If you have anytime left over, help the men any way you can.

Yes Ma’am.

The job didn’t sound too bad. Treating men with the three-day-flu When I got in there though, they moaned and carried on about how bad their backs hurt and their legs cramped. It hurts to see people in pain. I can’t turn a deaf ear to it. Excuse me for being indelicate, but the beds are saturated with urine and bowel movement. I can’t keep up with the bedpans and urinals, and the men are too sick to clean themselves. Bloodstains from men coughing it up and bleeding from their noses add to the mess.

Before I made it through my first round, one of the men wheezed and coughed. He spit up big globs of blood. I went to get one of the trained nurses to help me with him. When we came back, he was dead.

She said, you shouldn’t have left him. Never leave your patient. But what was I supposed to do? 

I don’t want to be here. I didn’t choose this. My dear cousin, keep praying for me.

                                                                                           Cuz