My step-grandmother passed in January of 2015. She was ninety-nine. She was also the inspiration behind my choosing the Titanic as part of the setting in my novel, My Dear One.
Born in Devon, England, Grandma came to Canada in 1915 when she was only a few weeks old, one of many pioneers who helped build Canada into the great nation it is today. However, she and the five children she raised, one of whom shaped my life as I know it, would not exist today had grandma’s parents traveled on the Titanic as originally scheduled.
Newlyweds, they secured steerage passage on the Titanic with the intention of building a new life in Canada. Some issue – and it’s never been fully clarified but relates to their ticket being cancelled, whether by them or White Star Line I’m still not clear – resulted in them traveling on a later ship and thus living to tell the tale. They were in Canada a couple of years when family and estate issues required their return to England from whence they again departed, this time permanently, in July of 1915, my grandma a six-week old bundle in her mother’s arms.
My wonder at how my life might be different – and how the sinking affected others’ lives and whether any of the survivors, like my heroine in My Dear One, found a silver-lining in the tragedy – helped shape my first novel. Reader appreciation, and love for my characters and craft inspires me to continue writing.
I hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I delight in writing in them. And if you’d like to know know more about the other woman whose real-life experience influenced My Dear One’s story line, visit her page, here.
Deborah