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At eighteen, Emma Ward married William Bucknell, sixty, filling the void left by two previous wives.
Life was not easy as four children completed their family.
At sixty and a widow, Emma found herself rowing a boatload of forty-three survivors of the sinking ship, Titanic.
Three of them were able seamen.
Despite the severe premonitions she had felt for weeks before the voyage, she had a commitment in the United States and could not cancel the ticket that would get her home.
The four hours she spent rowing in the freezing cold night and early morning of April 15, 1912, seemed like the longest in her life.
It is questionable what the word survivor means.
It is no wonder that so many of those human beings who debarked from the ship Carpathia in New York City could not bring themselves to truly talk about their experiences.
Ms. Soderman tries to bring a fraction of the meaning of Emma's life to her few remaining ancestors.
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