One hundred years ago, on January 30, 1919, my grandmother Freda Blustein died at age 24.  Daughter of Polish immigrants in New York City, Freda was one of the estimated 50,000,000 global victims of the “Spanish Flu” influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.  She left behind two young children, my father Robert, age 2, and his sister Gladys, age 4.

The ad below, which appeared in the New York Times exactly one year after her death, summarizes a family’s love for one who died so young:

Freda Blustein was born Fannie Korenteuer (later written Corenthal) on November 15, 1894 in Manhattan.  Freda’s father Adolph (who also went by Abraham or Abram) and mother Rebecca (née Rywka/Rifke Sztern or Stern) came from Warsaw, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. (More on their ancestors is below.)

As a young lady, Freda became secretary to David Blustein, a trader in furs and ginseng.  One of four brothers who emigrated from what is now Lithuania, David married Freda in 1913.  Freda was 20 years younger: David was 38 and Freda only 18.  A year later Gladys was born and Robert two years after that.  But in 1919, Freda was suddenly gone.

The horrible influenza pandemic caused an estimated 675,000 deaths in the United States.  Fueled by close quarters and troop movements of World War I in Europe, it spread the world in waves.  The third and final wave, to which Freda succumbed, began in early 1919.  The pandemic subsided that summer.  Public health was in its infancy and viruses were not yet discovered.  New York City made it illegal to not cover coughs, but that did little to stem the tide of death across the dense metropolis.

Indeed, 1919 was a year of tragedy for their family.  Freda’s mother Rebecca died in December of that year at age 55 from diabetes-related disorders.  Freda’s father Adolph however lived 20 more years until 1939.  His death certificate reflects that he was a zinc smelter by trade, still working the year he died at age 75.

After Freda’s death in 1919, her sister Anna agreed to raise young Robert (“Bobby”) and Gladys.  They and their father David moved into the Cedarhurst, Long Island home of Anna and her husband, lawyer Joseph Joffe, who would have two children of their own.  Later, the extended family moved to nearby Woodmere.

Freda’s husband David, my grandfather, never remarried.  He passed away in 1932 at age 58.  

I had the pleasure of knowing Freda’s sister Anna who raised my father after Freda’s untimely death.  We would occasionally visit Aunt Anna and Uncle Joe in the 1960s while they lived close to my childhood home in Huntington, L.I.  Unlike her sister, Anna lived a long life, passing away in the 1970s or 80s.

Freda’s two children had long lives too.  Daughter Gladys died in 1997 at age 82 on Long Island.  Gladys’ husband, architect Samuel Paul, died in 2001 at 89.  They had two children, Fredarica (named after Freda) and David, and six grandchildren.

Freda’s son, my father Robert, died in 1999 at age 83 in Thailand.  He had changed his name in the 1950s from Robert Blustein to Robert B. Stone. He was an author of over 80 books on self-help and powers of the mind.  His wife, my mother Lola, passed away in 2015 at age 98.  I am their only child and Lola has a daughter Lynne from a previous marriage.  In total, Bob and Lola had five grandchildren. Freda is now centered in a family tree nine generations deep.

One hundred years was a long time ago to lose one’s grandmother.  But thanks to incredible research tools available today, we have an idea of who she was and her family history.  Today on the centenary of her passing, we remember this young lady who was a victim of mass pandemic, not before bringing my young father into the world.

Our public family tree is on Geni.com.   The following depicts Freda’s known ancestors: