Sacred to the Memory of My Great-Aunt Edith 

Edith Richardson (1913 - 1929)

You slept when others worked. You faded when others grew. But you were not lazy, you were ill. And now, you are remembered.

The Last Sleep 

 In the winter of 1929, 

you died, to young, just seventeen. 

You had always been found sleeping- too often, too deeply. 

Your brothers discovered you in the hayloft, 

your chores unfinished,

your silence complete.

You may have been one of the last to fall victim to the sleepy sickness. 

A deadly pandemic that had crept through the world, 

leaving children drowsy, slow and misunderstood. 

It faded from the headlines, but not from lives.

No other member of your family was marked, 

you bore it alone. 

But your name lived on, 

given by your elder sister Emily, 

to your new born niece- my mum, in May 1939. 

A whisper of remembrance. 

A vow that you would not be forgotten.

Why did Edith die? 

Quote "Encephalitis lethargica has nothing in common with the tropical disease known as sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis). It is instead an atypical form of encephalitis which attacks the brain, centring on the grey matter and leaving its victims speechless and unable to move. Its name means, basically, “inflammation of the brain that makes you tired.” Its cause remains a mystery, though research continues and isolated cases still occur. One theory is that it is triggered by an excessive immune response to bacteria. At the time of its emergence, it was thought to be connected with the influenza pandemic of 1918–19, and some later research points to a viral infection. Researchers now suspect that the origins may be toxicological or infectious (viral or bacterial), with the possible implication of autoimmune disorders; some conjecture that the aetiology of the disease may have multiple causes. A BBC documentary of 2004 described encephalitis lethargica as the greatest medical mystery of the 20th century.

The origins of the encephalitis lethargica epidemic can be traced back to 1915, though most cases were reported in the 1920s. It could affect anyone, but it was most common in young people, particularly women, and occurred primarily in the United States and Europe, its transmission tied to wide-scale troop movements during and immediately after World War I. Early symptoms of fever, sore throat, and headache were quickly followed by double vision, tremors, delayed response, then drowsiness and lethargy; many patients became comatose and completely unresponsive. And many of those who survived remained in a coma for months or years." Unquote