Joshua Klassen

Joshua is our youngest storyteller and this is the fourth time he has been our youngest storyteller. He is 14. His first appearance at age 10 astounded all who saw and heard him. Joshua is a home-schooler who loves history, theatre, music, skiing, soccer, quading and fishing. His current aspiration is to be tall. Joshua has performed at the Cranbrook Locals, at the Fort Steel Heritage town on their evening train and at Sam Steele Days. Joshua lives with his family in Cranbrook.

The Spanish Lady of 1918

In 1918 an estimated 21 million people died of the Spanish Flu, and those were just the reported deaths. 50,000 people died in Canada. It was an avian flu that affected mostly men between the ages of 20 and 40. This “Spanish Lady” arrived in Cranbrook Halloween night taking her first victim at the St. Eugene Hospital. Her pandemic eyes would turn your face a sort of purplish brown and your feet a jet black. Within three months Cranbrook had lost 77 citizens and more than 500 more were affected. Joshua will assume the character of the attending physician, Dr, F. W. Green. Dr. Green will unravel for us the events of the Spanish Lady’s “deadly grippe.”