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Separated by flu

Robert DeLashmutt writes to his young sweetheart during the pandemic

Robert I. DeLashmutt and Maud E. Kennedy were two young lovers during the 1918 flu epidemic. Robert was born Aug. 25, 1898, and grew up on Webster Street, while Maud was born April 11, 1901, and grew up on the corner of Lowman and Clement Streets in Locust Point. The two first met at a Halloween party in 1917, and continued their courtship into the 1918 flu epidemic. But because both caught the disease, they were confined to their beds and could only communicate through letters. Here is one such letter Robert wrote to Maud. It was sent on Oct. 13, 1918, from his home on the 1500 block of Webster Street in South Baltimore:

My dear Maud

You cannot imagine how delighted I was in getting a letter from you knowing you still had strength enough to hold a pencil after having that dreadful disease the flu. I hope all are well by this time & tell Pansy when I see her person I will do the act instead of the marks and also the big sister too. Tell Ma I am thousand times oblige for her kind remembrances of me & I certainly did enjoy it today & it was fine. The Dr. was here today and said I could go out. I walked out a little & wanted to come down tonight but Ma thought it best for me to wait until Tuesday as she was afraid the night air would cause a relapse. So take good care of yourself & tell all to do the same. This has been the longest week I have spent it seems like a year since I have seen you.

I told you that I was going to raise a mustache as I did but didn't think I was going to raise it in bed. Snookums my kid brother was afraid to look me in the face.

We get the flu in pairs brother and I got up Saturday and my little sister & little brother got the flu Friday night. My married sister & all her kids have got it so we got a time of it up here.

Will close to you with love and sweet kisses.

From yours
Lovingly Rob.

(Letter images courtesy Ginny Stein)

Click on the images below to view each page of the love letter

This letter was given to The Sun by Ginny Stein of Linthicum Heights. Ginny is a granddaughter of Robert and Maud, who survived the flu and married on Aug. 28, 1919. Robert's mother had wanted him to wait until he turned 21 before marrying, so the wedding date was just three days after his 21st birthday.

After the wedding, the couple moved to 715 Harvey Street, and Robert worked several jobs, including brick-laying and plumbing. In the mid 1940s, Robert and his brother, Howard, started their own plumbing business called DeLashmutt Bros., and the company eventually employed five family members.

Robert and Maud told their four children vivid recollections from the epidemic. They spoke of doorways draped in black, wreathes on the doors. They recalled people walking with hands over their faces and yelling across the street to one another rather than speaking to them close up. And they even joked about how the epidemic was a financial gold mine for carpenters, themselves knowing a carpenter who got his start making caskets during the epidemic. They also told stories of how members of both the DeLashmutt and Kennedy families caught the flu, but that no one died from it. They credited a simple treatment plan: plenty of bedrest and plenty of good food.

Robert and Maud DeLashmutt remained married for 53 years, until Robert died of heart failure just before midnight on Feb. 21, 1972. After his death, Maud left the hospital and went home, where she died of a stroke the very next day. Neither the flu -- nor death -- could keep them apart for long.