Her Mother Voted In The Wake Of The 1918 Pandemic. Now, Voting Is A 'Sacred' Ritual
Helen Merrill and her granddaughter, Elizabeth Hartley, remember their family's matriarch, whose determination to vote in 1920 drove her to the polls even though she was recovering from the flu.
During the 1918 flu pandemic, Blanche Reeves was living in rural Iowa when she got sick. Even though she was still recovering in November 1920, she managed to cast her vote in the presidential election.
Her determination to exercise her vote continues to inspire Blanche's daughter, Helen Merrill, a century later. In a remote StoryCorps conversation last
