The following poem was written during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Yet, the sentiments sound familiar. Although the verse was published one hundred years ago, it applies equally to our current coronavirus crisis. Both pandemics changed our lives, if only temporarily, and both pandemics made us wonder how we can keep our sanity, how we can stay connected, how we can overcome the outbreak and how we can alter living conditions to ward off future disasters.

People are encouraged to wear face masks during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, just as they are during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Photo credit: designyoutrust.com. www.walled-in-berlin.com

The 1918-1919 flu pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. It infected 500 million people worldwide – about a third of the world’s population at the time. More than 50 million died, including 675,000 in the U.S. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html As of 30 June 2020, the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has infected 10,496,151 of the World’s population (2,698,417 in the U.S.) and killed 510,597 (129,060 in the U.S.) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ We all pin our hopes on the speedy development of an effective vaccine that will heal the people and the environment. Now read the poem. Does it not express familiar sentiments?

And People stayed at home

And read books

And listened

And they rested

And did exercises

And made art and played more deeply

Someone meditated, someone prayed

Someone met their shadow

And people began to think differently

And people healed

And in the absence of people who

Lived in ignorant ways

Dangerous, meaningless and heartless

The earth also began to heal

And when the danger ended and

People found themselves

They grieved for the dead

And made new choices

And dreamed of new visions

And created new ways of living

And completely healed the earth

Just as they were healed.

— Author unknown*

*And now a huge surprise! At least it was for me. Guess what? The poem wasn’t written in 1869 at all. It was written in March 2020 by Kitty O’Meara, a retired teacher from Madison, Wisconsin. No wonder, the sentiments felt so familiar. Kitty was saddened by what was happening and wanted to instill a bit of hope. She posted her poem on Facebook, and it went viral. Leave it up to the social media to bend the truth and to Oprah Winfrey to set the record straight. https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a31747557/and-the-people-stayed-home-poem-kitty-omeara-interview/ I have to admit, I almost bought the poem’s Spanish Flu origin hook, line and sinker. But now you, too, know the rest of the story.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.