Today has been 19 years since my dad passed away at the age of 86. His mother died in the last pandemic of 1918, when he was only 3 yrs old. It wasn't until this world pandemic of 2020 that I had a clue what it must have been like for my father. His 24 year old mother died in the second wave of the pandemic of 1918. Some say my mother's uncle, Francisco Padilla brought the Spanish flu back to the small community of Puerto de Luna, NM. when he returned from Kansas City, Missouri after he had gone there to sell his livestock at market. Everyone in the community was celebrating the end of WWI. So many people contracted the virus and died in the harsh winter of 1918 that they couldn't have funerals and had to bury families in unmarked group graves.
Thinking of you and your mom today Daddy.
AMERICAN BADASS
Written by my nephew Derek Hatley
Native son who fought for his country
Left no one behind as the bullets were strafing
Standing up to the Nazi’s and the communists armies
Better men, were born back then
What have we become since the days back when
We’re now all shitty and thin
Sucking up to things we don’t believe in
Corruption sucks, yet we are licking it’s boots thin
In a way I can’t describe now
Better men, were born back then
My grandpa would rather be
Buried alive
Than to see what has become
that came after his life
Radical fists punching up to the sky
Break the silence left behind
Let’s shout it out now
And leave it loose at the ends, because...
Better men, were born back then
Yeah better men were born back then.
Better men were born back then
Yeah better men were born back.
In your time then. You were the better man!
Love you grandpa!
Derek
