CHARLESTOWN â The worsening epidemic of Influenza had reached inside the Shannock home of 35-year-old Robert Browning. He and his wife Sarah (Card) had fallen ill along with their two children; 8-year-old Robert and eight-month-old Evelyn. Outside their door, a blizzard raged and all they could do was lay helplessly bedridden, listening to the violent winds. The storm had begun early that morning, Feb. 5, 1920. Heavy snow dumped down from the sky as 30-mile-per-hour gusts whipped the flakes into towering drifts that blocked roads. The mailman had attempted to fulfill his duties, shoveling a path for his horses as he went along through town but it was a hopeless pursuit and the mail would end up being delayed for days.