The Parade

Dad wore sweaters under his sweaters. When he was a kid he marched in the parade commemorating the end of World War I and didn’t wear a sweater, he said. In Worcester, Mass, it was bitter cold and he followed the parade for miles. He got a chill and a fever and almost died. His mother stayed up with him praying for three days and three nights, putting cold rags on his face. Finally the fever broke. He never told me about the influenza epidemic that killed a thousand in Worcester and the millions throughout the country that winter.