PANDEMICS PAST. AND HOW WE'VE PERSEVERED.
April 15, 2020
In a time when we’re all trying to figure out what’s next, it’s important to take a minute to remember the challenges we’ve conquered in the past. That’s why, for our second installment in our Fireside Chat series, Tim Wilson sat down with his father Charles to get some nuggets of wisdom. And a heaping helping of can-do.
As a kid growing up in the Great Depression, Charles Wilson was no stranger to adversity. He and his brother Ernie both worked from a young age to help their mother make ends meet. And in the midst of this struggle, they also happened to be faced with not one but three pandemics: the measles, the mumps and polio.
There were no vaccines. No answers. No one was immune. Not even the sitting President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He managed to hide it for some time, but FDR was eventually paralyzed from the waist down. That didn’t stop him from lifting others up with his own Fireside Chats: radio broadcasts to restore public confidence. And it didn’t stop him from forging an alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany in WWII.
Charles remembers these times vividly, including he and his brother’s own quarantine with the measles. But he also remembers this time fondly. And he reminds us that when people unite, we can do anything. By putting family first and understanding the needs of your community, history can repeat itself. A history of conquering the unconquerable and moving forward, together.
Hear something hopeful and listen to the whole fireside chat below.
