Delco centenarian recalls living through two pandemics

MIDDLETOWN » Living through a pandemic is nothing new to 100-year-old Helen Edwards McHenry. The longtime Springfield resident, who now makes her home at Lima Estates, spent a lifetime never knowing her father after he passed away from complications developed from the Spanish Flu in 1921. McHenry was just 16 months old.

“Through the years, I got to know about my father and about the Spanish Flu from stories told to me by my mother and other relatives,” McHenry explained.

The Spanish Flu, which first surfaced in 1918, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus, infecting 500 million people – about a third of the world’s population at the time.

The next worldwide pandemic of coronavirus this year, infecting more that 7 million around the globe, has also impacted the Delaware County woman’s life - but in a different way. She has been sequestered in Lima Estates since midMarch, unable to see her family or the outside world. She doesn’t mind, she says, because she heard about the effects of the Spanish Flu epidemic while growing up, and watched recent news reports so she knew the importance of sheltering-in-place.

“It made me feel safe that visitors could not come and go during this crucial time,” she said. “I never thought I’d live this long and I certainly never thought I would see another epidemic like this in my lifetime! However, I am totally confident that they’ll get a vaccination or at least a medication to help fight it.”

When asked if she was ever frightened by pandemic news she heard, she answered with the wisdom that comes through living a life full of ups and downs.

“Not really,” she quickly responded. “What will be, will be.”

With Pennsylvania now in the Yellow Phase, the centenarian was finally able to venture out this past Tuesday, for the first time in almost three months.

“My son came and got me and we went for a ride and tour of the area,” McHenry said. “It felt really nice to get out!”

McHenry’s son David took his mother to Springfield, where she resided for well over half of a century. He drove by to show her the new Springfield High School and the damages around town from a recent wind storm. As the grandmother of five and the great-grandmother of ten, McHenry was also pleased, she said, to be able to get a quick glance and give a drive-by wave to her granddaughter who lives in Wallingford and her grandson, who resides in Springfield.

McHenry, who was born Sept. 15, 1919, in WilkesBarre, Pa., was raised with her late sister Jean by her single mother after losing her dad at the young age. The family moved to the Philadelphia area during World War II, where Helen got a job as a secretary for Stetson Hats, Philadelphia Division. She met her husband Robert “Bob” McHenry after he came home from serving in the war.

After marrying in 1946, the couple created a home in Springfield, nearby where Robert’s father, F. L. McHenry owned the Mac and Sam car dealership on Springfield Road in Clifton Heights. They raised two children, David of Springfield and Shirley McHenry Guy of Sun City, S.C., in

SUBMITTED PHOTO Delaware County resident Helen McHenry, 100years old, shares how her life was touched by two pandemics - the Spanish Flu in the 20th century and the coronavirus in the 21st century.