Robert O'Brien, now 84, never met his Aunt Mary Philomena O'Brien because she died in the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak that killed millions worldwide. But his family has passed down her story. She volunteered to nurse WWI veterans and flu victims back to health at a sick ward at Gonzaga College. She contracted the flu and died just a few days later. A letter written by her father said that she came home from work very sick and that the resulting pneumonia took her life in less than a week. She was 18, possibly 19.
