“In 1918 the end of World War I brought rejoicing to people. It also brought the terrible influenza epidemic. Grace’s cousin, Abbie and her husband, Alden Bryant, had come to North Battleford and were very close to Grace and Lynn. Lynn was particularly fond of Alden, and when he got “the flu” Lynn undertook nursing him back to health. In spite of Lynn’s nursing care, Alden died; a terrible blow to Lynn. Alden was buried in the North Battleford Cemetery, the first of many of the family that would follow. Abbie and her two children returned to the United States. There, soon after, another daughter was born, who was given the name Grace after the cousin left in Canada.

Gladys (Bee) then got sick and it was feared she, too, had contracted “the flu”. It turned out, thought, to be a severe case of diphtheria, almost as bad as had it been the flu. Then both Vern and Lynn had operations for appendicitis. With so much sickness in the family, Lynn’s mother came from Crookston to help out and bring some solace into the household. Adelia, by this time, was past sixty-five years old and did not enjoy her visit, for she too, did not seem to feel well. Even after returning home she wrote her niece, Herma, “I was gone a month (to) Lynn’s family (who were) sick and they sent for me & (I) was sick while there so did not have much of a visit”

The work at Imperial Oil proved to be burdensome for Lynn. He had never been overly robust and handling the heavy awkward forty-five gallon “drums” of fuel, loading and unloading from horse drawn delivery wagons proved to much for him. He had developed an abdominal rupture which prevented muscular strain at times. Besides, Adelia had discovered that her ailment was terminal cancer. In a letter of 2^nd of May, 1920, Adelia wrote Herma, “Am looking for (Lynn’s) wife here soon, he is gettn along fine, has a nice family, his first wife’s boy Levern, then a girl, Gladys, and a boy, George, by the last wife, all nice children.” Apparently, Lynn intended to remain with his job while Grace and children travelled to Crookston. As his mother wrote, he was getting “along fine” financially, but not health wise, and he had the worry of his mother’s condition. If Grace went first to Crookston, as Adelia expected, Lynn may have found the absence of family, added to all else, warranted a change. Taking all into consideration, Lynn quit his job and took his family, less Vern, to Crookston. Grace insisted that education was too important for Vern to miss his schooling where he attended at Connaught in North Battleford.

Great was Adelia’s disappointment when the family arrived without her favorite grandchild, whom she had practically raised during his first five years. She burst out that she would have preferred they all stayed away if they could not have brought Vern. No, doubt, her painful condition contributed to such an outburst.

October 18^th 1921, while they were in Crookston, Lynn’s son Frank Harding Tatro was born. This new baby carried the name of two of Lynn’s kinfolk: Franklin Tatro, a cousin, and Silas Harding Emmerson, his Uncle “Hardy”, husband of Phoebe Tatro. With Adelia so sick, no doubt, the joy of the new arrival was quite subdued.

At that time the Thad Tatro home must have been a very busy place. Besides Lynn’s family, Grace and Orie Morlan’s two older children spent weekdays there while attending school. The Morlans lived five miles from town, so Darrell and Marian stayed with their grandparents during the week, returning home for the weekends. A photograph was taken of each grandparent with the many Tatro and Morlan grandchildren at that time.

Adelia died on March 7^th, 1922 at 8:15 in the morning. Lynn reported the lingering ordeal to his Aunt Lucretia. “ Mother never regained consciousness again after I sent you that telegram, except for a moment at a time…We certainly were thankful that she did not realize her suffering. Of course, we kept her under morphine for about six weeks, but at that, she suffered terribly at times. We buried her last Thursday, March 10 and I will send you some of the flowers…Uncle Hardy and Aunt Phoebe were here, also Myrtle and Luty (their children). Dad, I expect, will stay with Grace, for a while anyway.” He continued. “We are leaving for Canada in a few days as we can do better there than we can here. Our address there will be Brada, Sask.” *

• THE TATROS OF NORTH AMERICA Harry A. Tatro p 63-65