After Titanic

The Carpathia

I was woken up after a few hours of sleep by someone shaking me. I opened my eyes and saw Mama in the same position that I saw her in before I went to sleep and knew she was dead. 

"Come on get on the ship now." A voice from behind me demanded 

I shook my head and said "No, not without Mama."

"Fine." The voice said clearly not wanting to argue. 

He picked up her body and swung her over his shoulder her head limply dangling. It was one of the scariest things I have ever seen. 

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Once we were on the new ship I picked a place on the crowded deck to sit down and the man put Mama's body down next to me. The man walked away and I picked up Mama's head, put it on my lap and started to brush the ice away from her face. My eyes slowly filled with tears and before I knew it I was crying. A woman came over to me and handed me a mug of steaming liquid before she walked away she said, "Drink it dear."

I took a sip, it tasted like peppermint tea but it wasn't like the stuff that Mama and I drank at home. It was actually peppermint tea made with proper tealeaves not just the leaves from our yard. The morning went on in a massive blur of colors and sounds. 

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At around one in the afternoon one of the Titanic's stewards came over to me holding a clipboard and asked me some questions about who I was and who I was travelling with so they could find count the amount of survivors. I told her that I was travelling with my Mama who is now dead and my friend Hetty and her sister Polly. The stewardess said she had no record of people with those names. 

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The next few days were the same as the first. On the last day on the Carpathia I fiddled with the hem of my Mothers dress hem then it hit me, Mama always carried a small sum of money in her pocket. I looked in her pocket and found her purse, it had 3 pounds in it. On the first day on Titanic I put my own purse into the pocket of my grey dress, luckily I was wearing my grey dress. Inside my purse I found five shillings. I put my purse inside Mamas and then put it back into my pocket. Then there was a shout of joy and somebody yelled "Oh, just look at it, there it is New York"

I looked up along with the others on the ship and saw a massive harbor with massive buildings behind it. 

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On the docks there was a massive crowd of people pushing and shoving, trying to get to the notice board with names of survivors, I knew my name was on one of the lists. I didn't bother going over to properly check it, because it would just result in more tears if I did. I came to the conclusion that I needed to find an orphanage, but fist I had to decide what I was going to do with Mamas body. 

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I walked around New York for a few hours when I came across a building that did funerals and I walked inside. There was a man standing behind the counter that said, "What are you doing in here?" He asked me 

"My Mama died a few days ago." I told him my eyes filled with tears

I told him the rest of the story and he said he would burn Mamas body for free. He went behind the store and told me to go with him and put Mamas body inside a cardboard box then put her in a fireplace. I saw the flames licking at the box. Then the man scraped the ashes into a jar and tied it off with blue ribbon. Then he handed it to me and I said thanks and left the store. 

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I walked for a bit longer then turned a corner and there it was this massive grey building.