My sister died of complications from measles. It was 1944, towards the end of World War II, in rural Oklahoma. Carolyn was four years old. My brother Johnny had brought measles home from school. He got over them all right, but Carolyn's neck became stiff, she spiked a fever, and had convulsions. Our mother took her to the hospital. She had meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain, caused by a virus. The only medicine that would have saved her was penicillin. Penicillin, while increasingly being produced, was not widely available then. She died.
My mother said Carolyn's death contributed to the end of her first marriage. She moved to California, remarried, and had two more children, Jimmy and me. When Jimmy came home from school with the measles, I caught them as well. I was four years old. The minute I started complaining that my ears hurt, my mother took me to the hospital. I started convulsing in the Emergency Room waiting to see a doctor. My mother, normally a reserved person, yelled at the staff until someone came to help. By then, in 1956, penicillin was widely available in the United States. I was ushered in, given penicillin, and admitted to the hospital. Because meningitis can be contagious if caused by bacteria, not by a virus, I was placed in isolation to make sure I wouldn't make anyone else sick. I spent a week alone, with only gowned and masked nurses and doctors checking on me. It was touch and go. Even with the penicillin, I was lucky to survive.
Eventually, the medicine kicked in and I got better. Once the doctors ruled out bacterial infection, I was moved into the regular children's ward. I still remember refusing to eat food off a tray on Thanksgiving because I was angry there was no turkey dinner with my family.
With an improved measles vaccine available in 1968 and a combination vaccine with mumps and rubella available in 1971, measles was considered eliminated in the United States by the year 2000. I experienced great relief when I took my son and, four years later, my daughter, to be vaccinated against the scourge that took my sister before I ever knew her and that nearly cost me my life.
Now, however, in 2025, there are outbreaks among unvaccinated children that threaten their lives. Today's parents live with a false sense of security, never having had to deal with this virus that is incredibly contagious and can be so deadly. I share my story to help convince parents please get your children vaccinated.
I never knew my sister. When women talk about their sisters and "that special bond" sisters have, I feel the loss of that little girl who would have meant so much to me.