By Doree Flodin Soderman (Granddaughter of Emma Bucknell)
At age eighteen, Emma Ward married William Bucknell, sixty, filling the void left by two previous wives. Bucknell was multi-millionaire and philanthropist and Bucknell University was named after him.
She and her husband lived in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia where they raised five children.
At sixty and a widow, (her husband died in 1890), Emma had been wintering in Europe and was returning with her maid, Miss Albina Bassani, boarding Titanic at Cherbourg. One of Emma’s friends on board was Margaret Tobin Brown and Emma had confided to her, her premonitions about the voyage that she had felt for several weeks but she had commitments to return home and couldn’t make other arrangements.
After Titanic had struck the iceberg and as Emma and her maid were making their way to the lifeboats, Emma ran into Margaret Brown and whispered to her, “Didn’t I tell you something was going to happen?” Some of the women took places at the oars in boat No. 8, the first boat to be lowered over the port side and Emma found herself rowing beside the Countess of Rothes while her maid pulled an oar beside the Countess’ maid.
In the years that followed Emma Bucknell spent time in Florida and Saranac Lake, New York, her home and in this book, Doree Soderman helps to fill in the spaces of her grandmother’s life. Softcover. Illustrated in color and B&W. 168 pages.
