Jesse Buchanan and the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918

On Oct 30th, 1918 my great-great grandmother  Mary Ann "Mollie" Stephenson Buchanan received a telegram with terrible news.  Her 29 year old son Jesse was seriously ill with Pneumonia  caused by the Spanish flu.  October of 1918 was the height of the Spanish flu epidemic sweeping the United States and the world.  It has been almost 100 years since the pandemic, and it's hard for us to understand just how devastating it was.  

The 1918 flu pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza outbreak.  500 million people around the world were infected, resulting in the deaths of 3-5 percent of the worlds population.  (50-100 million!)  It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.
  ^{]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic}

In San Antonio where Jesse was living, between September 30-Nov 7th, 7,391 cases were reported and there were 500 deaths. Hospitals were strained to the breaking point.  At Robert G. Green Memorial Hospital for San Antonio's and Bexar County's indigent, 18 student nurses tended to 140 influenza patients, since the 12 regular nurses there were ill.  
 https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-sanantonio.html#

All schools and churches were closed, and public gatherings cancelled.  The "second wave" of the Spanish flu began in October 1918.  The virus had mutated and was much more deadly.  ]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

We don't know a lot about Jesse, but in the 1910 census he was living with his widowed mother and his brother Otis in Ellis County, Texas.  He was 20 years old and single and working as a laborer. https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10132-79765887-/jesse-m-buchanan-in-1910-united-states-federal-census?s=500285941&indId=individual-500285941-2500804#fullscreen 

By 1915 he was living in San Antonio and working in farming.  He lived there until his death.  It is not known if he was married or had children. 

Unfortunately for Jessie Buchanan and his family, he died October 31, 1918 sometime after his mother received the telegram, from complications of the Spanish Flu.  I only hope his mother was able to see him one last time.