Memento from the 1918 pandemic
Janet Freeman has lived in Lyons for a few decades, but her roots are in the Midwest. When she moved to Lyons in 1988, she and her grandmother, on her mother’s side, went through her Great Aunt Jenny Peters Schafer’s trunks for family memorabilia that Janet could take with her.
Jenny’s brother and his daughter, hardly a year old, passed away during the 1918 pandemic. Janet was given the dress that it was believed the girl wore for possibly both her baptism and funeral. It has slits down the back and ties in the back. It is all hand-stitched.
Back when the family got a plot in the Elmhurst Cemetery in the Chicago area, the surrounding towns were still considered country. Jenny Peters’ father made the family burial headstone. They decorated the graves yearly, but it was never brought up at family gatherings that some of her family had passed during the pandemic. It makes one wonder what people will remember about our turmoils and deceased relatives 100 years from now.
