My parents both died when I was a child, I was orphaned. 
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that! While it's certainly not something to hope for, know that you're in good company. Many celebrated writers, businessmen and world leaders are also orphans.
Really? I didn't know that. Can you tell me an example? 
Nelson Mandela was an orphan! Although it isn't clear if he lost both parents because the United Nations will classify someone as an orphan due to the loss of one parent.
Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that, I thought a person had to lose both parents. Any other well known orphans?
Edgar Allen Poe was also an orphan. I'm not sure if his parents died or if they abandoned him. 
It's hard to know, back then a lot of factors separated families, including poverty and disease. These days it is much less common to be orphaned in the US or other developed countries, I think. 
I think you're 100% correct. A lot of kids were orphaned by war and thankfully we haven't had anything as catastrophic as the Korean War, which created many orphans.
Yes, also the 1918 influenza and the Great Depression probably contributed to a lot of children here being orphaned back in the day. 
I'll bet that's true! 50 to 100 million people died from the 1918 flu pandemic. There must have been so many children that were left as orphans.