Over the last year, in writing Lost to Titanic, I’ve read everything I could get my hands on about the sinking of the Titanic. I’ve watched every documentary, any television special, and looked at so many photographs my eyes went blurry. Still, nothing prepared me for one particular picture...Or my reaction to it.
We all know the story of Titanic. The beauty, the tragedy, the race to the lifeboats, the heroes, the cowards, and the band playing as the ship went down. It sounds like something created just for the silver screen or to be locked in the pages of a book, but it was reality.
I knew it was a reality. I saw the pictures, I watched on television as Ballard found the wreck, and I listened to experts debate what happened. Still, it wasn’t really real. It was the past. The voices silenced over the decades as survivors died from old age. The harshness of it all was fading.
All of that changed when I came across the photo above and the story attached to it. This single photo represents Titanic much more than anything else.
When I first looked at the photograph, it looked like nothing more than a shot of shoes in the debris field. Why should it matter when there were so many more interesting photos like the piano, the doll’s face, the dishes, the coal, and the wine bottles? Who cared about shoes that fell so haphazard to the bottom of the ocean?
But it wasn’t haphazard at all. Those shoes were all that was left of a body, marking the exact location where this person came to rest after fighting for their life against the freezing water. I looked at that picture, studied it, and then broke out in tears.
This was a person. Whoever this was, their family waited for word, maybe waited for their body to be found, and finally gave up waiting. This person lay lost and forgotten until the wreck was found and now is nothing more than a caption in the debris field of the ship. No one will ever know whom this person was or what they may have become, their name gone to history.
It all stopped then. It wasn’t a story of tragic beauty. It was just a story of tragedy, of loss, and nothing symbolizes that more than that photograph of those shoes.
We all know the story of Titanic. The beauty, the tragedy, the race to the lifeboats, the heroes, the cowards, and the band playing as the ship went down. It sounds like something created just for the silver screen or to be locked in the pages of a book, but it was reality.
I knew it was a reality. I saw the pictures, I watched on television as Ballard found the wreck, and I listened to experts debate what happened. Still, it wasn’t really real. It was the past. The voices silenced over the decades as survivors died from old age. The harshness of it all was fading.
All of that changed when I came across the photo above and the story attached to it. This single photo represents Titanic much more than anything else.
When I first looked at the photograph, it looked like nothing more than a shot of shoes in the debris field. Why should it matter when there were so many more interesting photos like the piano, the doll’s face, the dishes, the coal, and the wine bottles? Who cared about shoes that fell so haphazard to the bottom of the ocean?
But it wasn’t haphazard at all. Those shoes were all that was left of a body, marking the exact location where this person came to rest after fighting for their life against the freezing water. I looked at that picture, studied it, and then broke out in tears.
This was a person. Whoever this was, their family waited for word, maybe waited for their body to be found, and finally gave up waiting. This person lay lost and forgotten until the wreck was found and now is nothing more than a caption in the debris field of the ship. No one will ever know whom this person was or what they may have become, their name gone to history.
It all stopped then. It wasn’t a story of tragic beauty. It was just a story of tragedy, of loss, and nothing symbolizes that more than that photograph of those shoes.
My own spin on the Titanic story is a romance set in both the past and the modern day. It is available on Amazon.
Lost to Titanic (Reincarnation Romance Chronicles)
Vanessa Hurley had enough of men, life, and trying to pretend she isn't dying on the inside, but fate isn't finished with her. She was ready to end it all when she climbed the rail of the bridge and plunged into the Ohio River, but something happened in the water. Suddenly, she is bombarded with memories of Titanic and the sinking...Memories that couldn't possibly be hers.
Dr. Scott Langdon is fighting to save what's left of his psychiatric career, but after just a few sessions with his new patient, Vanessa, he could lose more than just his career if he follows his heart.
To understand the present, they must revisit the past...But will they be Lost to Titanic?
Lost to Titanic (Reincarnation Romance Chronicles)
Vanessa Hurley had enough of men, life, and trying to pretend she isn't dying on the inside, but fate isn't finished with her. She was ready to end it all when she climbed the rail of the bridge and plunged into the Ohio River, but something happened in the water. Suddenly, she is bombarded with memories of Titanic and the sinking...Memories that couldn't possibly be hers.
Dr. Scott Langdon is fighting to save what's left of his psychiatric career, but after just a few sessions with his new patient, Vanessa, he could lose more than just his career if he follows his heart.
To understand the present, they must revisit the past...But will they be Lost to Titanic?
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