When the flu epidemic reached Washington in 1918, it proved to be a major catastrophe in the overcrowded city. Temporary shelters were put up for the thousands of victims, often in places without even cooking facilities. The Cabinet wives and the wives of the under secretaries agreed to supply food to certain of these shelters every day. My particular assignment was to provide large cans of soup for one particular shelter. I went there every day and came to know some of the people and to realize when there were curtains around a bed that someone was dying or had died.
Wow. Would today’s Cabinet ladies do the same?
