Description
Mr. Brinson describes getting Spanish influenza and fearing for the lives of his family after sending them a letter he wrote while he was contagious with the Spanish flu. The consequences of this illness were evidenced by the deaths of eight infected soldiers in eight days.
Jesse Brinson
Jesse Brinson was born in Western Arm, Newfoundland in 1897. His father was a fisherman and trapper, and he trapped with his dad for eight years. In 1913 Mr. Brinson joined a lumber camp. He then worked aboard schooners, fishing and freighting. Mr. Brinson enlisted and trained in St. John's, but the war ended before he was sent overseas.
Transcript
I got the Spanish influenza, I was time enough to catch that. I wrote a letter, had no better sense than to write a letter now and send the disease right in the family to take the whole lot of them out the one day, never give it a thought. I wrote father and told him I was in a military hospital with the flu, Spanish flu. And while I was there, there was eight soldiers buried. Eight days a soldier buried every day for eight days.