To the editor:
“A Grim Toll Reprised” by Thor Jourgensen (Item, March 22) provided a stark reminder of the similarities between the Spanish Flu and COVID-19 today.
To those Lynn victims of 1918, may I add the name of my maternal uncle, John Boland, age 24, who succumbed on September 21 of that year. His obituary in the Lynn Telegram that day read: “John F. Boland, Jr., was born in Lynn and attended Cobbet Grammar School …Everything was done for him, but his condition was such that medical assistance was to no avail. He was a well-known young man of the city, a member of Lynn Lodge, and the Valladolid Counsel Knights of Columbus.
“He attended St. Mary’s Church and was a member of the Holy Name Society of that parish. Besides his mother and father, he is survived by a brother Arthur Boland, a student at Lynn English High School, and two sisters, Annie and Sarah Boland.”
Helen Breen
Lynnfield
