As the Great World War was winding down, a disease spread rapidly across Canada, reaching Saskatchewan in October 1918. In a matter of months, 5,000 died in Saskatchewan alone (more than the number of provincial war dead). Half of those victims died in the month of November.<\/p>\n Rural Saskatchewan was hit hardest by the flu. The inclination of many people was to head to the nearest town or village to face the epidemic with friends and be closer to medical aid. The crowding together, however, only facilitated the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n A building in Bengough was converted into a makeshift hospital and my 17-year-old father worked bathing patients, changing bedding, giving medicine, and taking temperatures under Doc Ireland\u2019s instruction. He sometimes was the only one watching a neighbor pass away. After days without sleep, my exhausted Dad passed out on an empty bed in the ward. When he awoke hours later, Doc Ireland was peering anxiously over him, wondering if he too had caught the dreaded disease. By God\u2019s grace, he did not. He was one of the lucky ones. Many Bengough families were completely wiped out.<\/p>\n Fifty years after the pandemic, our family visited the little Canadian prairie town. There, my father told me about the \u201cSpanish Flu,\u201d and how it decimated the town he grew up in. I\u2019ve never forgotten the cemetery with so many dates ending in \u201c1918.\u201d<\/p>\n The book of Joshua, in the Old Testament, tells of a similar moment of remembrance. As the Hebrews crossed the Jordan River and entered the land promised to them by God, they were instructed to set up a remembrance from large river stones.<\/p>\n Joshua 4:6-8 (NASB) \u201cLet this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, \u2018What do these stones mean to you?\u2019 then you shall say to them, \u2018Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.\u2019 So, these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus, the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the Lord spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there.<\/p>\n The stones placed on the riverbank were intended to be used as a reminder of an important event; the dry land crossing of the Jordan by the people of Israel. Imagine an aged Jew saying to his grandchildren, \u201cI was there that day\u2026 God again provided for our needs.\u201d What an impact that would have on an impressionable child\u2026to clearly understand exactly what those stones meant to the people that God loved.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why, five decades past, I clearly remember what those tombstones meant in a lonely village cemetery amid the vast wheat fields. For Dad, seeing the frailty of life ultimately led him, one day, to make a clear profession of salvation in our Blessed Savior.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20200326101914\/the-1918-spanish-influenza-epidemic-reached-saskatchewan-nea-300x225.jpeg\")