DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - This is a postcard my grandfather’s brother sent from boot camp in October 1918, just a few weeks before he died from the Spanish Flu while being ministered to in his final moments by Red Cross volunteers.

The Whiteside Family donated the land that is now called Whiteside Park in Ely.

Their daughter Lydia donated her life to help wounded soldiers when she volunteered to be a Red Cross nurse in World War One.

She went from riches to rags just behind the frontlines in France with a mobile surgical hospital called the Flying Unit by General Jack Pershing.

“The conditions they were serving in weren’t just austere, they weren’t just rough conditions, they were literally within the combat area.” said Dan Williams of the Red Cross.

Jeff Kazel of the Northl

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