Tuesday, April 13, 2021

AN OMINOUS ANNIVERSARY!

      WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021

      AN OMINOUS ANNIVERSARY!

  It was April 14th, 1912 when the RMS

Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden

voyage claiming the lives of some 1500

people. My close interest in the story began

in 1972 when I interviewed a survivor, Mrs.

Thelma Thomas from Wilkes-Barre. Little

did I know that interview would get me

directly involved with the story! Mrs. Thomas

and her infant son were being escorted to 

America by her brother in law, Charles. After

the ship struck the iceberg she became separated

from Charles who was carrying her baby boy!

For days she believed they both had perished.

Charles did lose his like in the sinking but

managed to hand the infant to a woman in a

lifeboat. Mrs. Thomas was reunited with her

chiled at a hospital in New York City. She

spoke of hearing the band play till just before

the end and of hearing the horrible screams of

those dying in the water. On the 60th anniversary.

tye day my interview was to air, I saw an English

woman, Mrs. Edwina Trout Mckenzie, on the

Today show. She also recalled the band and the

screaming. But then she told the interviewer that

while she was in a lifeboat somebody handed her

a baby. I called NBC and told of Mrs Thomas'

infant son being handed to a woman. They got 

Mrs. Mckenzie on the phone with Mrs. Thomas.

Mrs. Mckenzie remembered the blanket. SHE

had saved Mrs. Thomas' son that night and I

had solved a then 60 year old Titanic mystery!

Ironically the two never met in person. They

spoke by phone and wrote to one another but

Mrs. Thomas passed away about a year later.

Each Titanic victim and survivor has a story

and you'd be surprised how many of those

stories strike close to home! Hope you're

well and that all your NEWS is good!


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