Tuesday, 10 April 2012
The girl who didn’t travel with Titanic
Perhaps it would amuse you to hear my own family history about Titanic, even if it is a short one. My maternal grandmother Greta’s family belonged to the working classes and in the early 20th century several members went to USA to try to make a more decent living. It didn’t take, by the 20’s they were all back in Sweden again, but in 1912 one of my grandmother’s aunts, Ingrid, was sent a ticket by her relatives in USA to come. A ticket with, no less, this brand new and fancy ship Titanic. Ingrid didn’t want to go, but you didn’t turn down a ticket to the States, so she went to Southampton to board. There she fell ill in pneumonia and was so ill that she couldn’t travel, so Titanic left without her and she went back to Sweden again. Pneumonia isn’t a song and dance, but for Ingrid it was probably very lucky, as she was a 3rd class passenger and it would have been very likely that she had drowned when the ship sank.
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5 comments:
I think she thanked her lucky star for the pneumonia she got in England. But it's a cool story to tell people about our realtive.
/Lillasyster
Rackarns tur i oturen hon hade!
Usch, jag står inte ut med att tänka på Titanic och dess undergång! Det är något med katastrofer till havs som får det att riktigt krypa i kroppen. (Jag har faktiskt stortjutit till en dokumentär om Estonia...) "Inte havet, aldrig havet," som Dynamit-Harry sade.
Förresten, om det nu hade varit mening att människan skulle flyta omkring på vattnet och (vi kan lika gärna ta det också) flyga i luften, skulle hon då inte hellre blivit en and? =P
A family story to be thankful for, for the ages...
Very best,
Natalie
I love family stories like this--thanks for sharing! It puts such a personal and human face on history!
Wow, that does bring an old and famous incident into a personal level. Lucky pneumonia eh!
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