Getting a flu shot is not a tough decision for me. I think about the risk but the cousins got together a few years back in Michigan on my Dad’s side of the family. We visit court house, museums, and cemeteries.
The family suffered a lot of deaths in 1918 from the influenza. My great grandfather lost a number of his children. And extended family members were lost. A little bit shocking because he was country doctor, but medicine was not as it is today. I remember looking at the headstones of his twin daughters who never reached their teens. His eldest child had returned from WWI having fought in France. Did he and other returning veterans carry the flu home with them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_fluI do not have the same kind of information on my mother’s family in Alabama. Mom never mentioned flu deaths in her large family.
The Hong Kong flu hit my young household hard. All of us were sick over Christmas 1968. The wife, the baby, and I were very sick. The turkey stayed in the freezer and we eat can food. We were down close to two weeks. I returned to work, fought a winter fire, and we were all down for another two weeks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_fluA few years later we had two young ones, and we got hit by the flu. Another Christmas dinner was missed. The only good thing about it was when the wife was down I was up, and when it hit me she was better.
A good reminder why we will get flu shots soon. We have not been sick during the winter since getting flu shots; I do have the urge to cluck like a chicken after the shot.