My Story: R.M.S Titanic [Completed]

21: A Family History

After we ate and had a single beer with our breakfasts, which is something that must be an American thing since Scott seemed right at home with it, we bid our goodbyes to Sarah and promised to be on the dock when she arrived to New York. Scott and I walked back to the hotel where Emma and Robert already had our belongings in bellhop and they were loading it into a taxi.

"Are you ready to go back to the Titanic?" Scott asked as he helped me get in the taxi. I made myself comfortable before answering him.

"Yes. I want to be somewhere familiar," I said. He smiled and he held my hand as the taxi started moving with another taxi behind us with Emma and Robert.

"You do know that we cannot live on the Titanic, correct?" he said. I nodded and laughed a little at the slight jab that he gave me for finding the Titanic familiar.

"I know that we cannot live on the Titanic. I want a solid house in America," I said. He took my hand and squeezed.

"You will get your home in America," he said. I smiled and he closed the curtains of the windows. He looked at me and touched my face. "Being in London for a day was something that I enjoyed. It really offered insight into you," he whispered.

"You know a lot about me but I don't know much about you," I told him as I enjoyed the seclusion that the half way light offered us.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Can I know about your family?" I asked. He looked down and nodded.

"I had six older siblings, three brothers and three sisters. I was the youngest of seven. My mother was a maid for a cranky old man that treated her like she was stupid just because she came home every night," he started, "My father was a small farmer in up state New York. The farm was home for us.

"Our farm grew corn. I know that it seems unusual for a farm to focus on a single thing but my father wanted to grow corn and sell corn. My eldest sister, Jane, would grow other crops to make sure that we had things to eat but my father only sold corn. My mother thought that my father had courage because he was determined to sell his corn.

"Other people thought that us kids were too free spirited. My sisters always had their skirts hitched up and sometimes we would run around in under clothes. My brothers and I never knew a day that we were forced to wear shoes as we ran around the farm. My mother and father made sure that we were never held back by the way that people saw the third class.

"Then my mother got sick. Cancer. My father tried everything. He even sold extra crops but it was never enough to help my mother and pay for the farm. He sold the farm and we had to get in normal clothes and shoes to live in a tenant. A year later, my mother passed away. I knew that at nine, I had to find work so I went to the docks of New York City where a ship builder took me in.

"Shortly after, my second eldest brother, Jimmy, died in a factory related accident. My father couldn't handle it and hung himself. My third oldest sister, Gracie, found our dad and went mad. Jane found a nicer mental institution for her but she died in a medical related accident.

"Then it was just Jane, my eldest brother, Herbert, my second eldest sister, Laura, my third eldest brother, Samuel, and me. Herbert, Samuel, and I did everything that we could to make sure that Jane and Laura didn't have to work. The ship builder made sure that I could have extra food to take home.

"Samuel came to visit me at work one day and there was a fight between him and an engineer maker. Samuel was beaten unconscious and thrown into the ocean. They didn't find his body.

"Herbert tried to make sure that we were all okay and yet he got sick. We were scared that he had cancer like our mother but he had gotten some sort of bug. He didn't last long until he passed away.

"I took overtime and did everything I could for Jane and Laura. Laura started working with a taxi company and was in a car accident later that year. It was just Jane and me. Then Jane got married.

"Things were good for a while. Her husband was really compassionate and took care of us both. Then he died in a mining related accident. Jane had just found out that she was pregnant.

"When she went to have the child, she died from the birth. The baby was born still as well. As for me, I had no where to go and no family so I went to White Star Line and became an officer's helper. I never looked back." He had tears rolling down his eyes and I wasn't expecting there that much information given to me. He closed his eyes and I took his hand. I didn't know what to say.

"I am sorry," I whispered. He looked at me and moved my hair.

"You didn't do anything, Mae," he said. I nodded and he lifted my chin. "Promise me something?" he asked.

"Anything," I said as he ran his fingers across my cheeks.

"Don't leave me. I can't lose another person I love," he said. I touched his sculpted face and stared into his eyes.

"I promise," I said as I kissed his lips softly.