Witness to 1918 flu: "Death was there all the time"

CNN.com has a good background story: Witness to 1918 flu. It's an interview with a 98-year-old who recalls the flu in Framingham, Massachusetts when he was an 11-year-old altar boy and attended many masses for the dead.

The story also contains useful context from John Barry's book The Great Influenza. I suspect we're not very far from the 1918 faith in holy medals as ways to stave off disease.