Valley Woman’s Life Inexorably Linked To Sailing Of Titanic

Watching the movie “Titanic” recently at the Spokane Valley Mall cinemas, I was reminded what an important part chance has played in my family’s life.

The movie brought to mind a story that my husband had told about his father. Call it fortune, fate, whatever, the central incident in that story played a tremendous role in the direction of my life.

If my father-in-law had not changed his plans on a cold, cloudy April day many years ago, I would never have met or married the man that I did, nor would I have received the blessings of our two sons. I know my life would have turned out much different than it is today.

In 1912, 10 years after he had immigrated to Canada from Sweden, my husband’s father, Edvard Larrson, returned home to visit his family. In Sweden, he booked return passage from South Hampton, England, to New York on the White Star’s much-heralded new luxury liner, Titanic.

After a lengthy visit in Sweden, Edvard traveled to South Hampton to catch his ship. Upon arriving at the port, my father-in-law was approached by a gentleman who wanted to buy his ticket on the Titanic. Knowing that he could buy a ticket on the next ship scheduled to make the same voyage at considerably less cost, Edvard agreed to sell.

This is the story that my husband was told by his father. However, after seeing the movie, my husband has started to wonder whether that is really the reason his father gave up his ticket on the Titanic.

You see, Edvard loved to play cards. Might he, like the Swede in the movie, have gambled away his ticket? Might he have changed that part of the story because he didn’t want his son to know?

Whatever the case, the rest is history.

With some unknown person using my father-in-law’s ticket aboard, the Titanic kept its tragic appointment with an iceberg on that now infamous April night. The White Star line counted one Edvard Larrson as a perished third-class, non-British passenger.

My father-in-law, meanwhile, remained at South Hampton for a few more days, then enjoyed an uneventful Atlantic crossing on the liner Britannica.

When he arrived back in Canada, Edvard went straight to see his sister. She met him with complete shock and disbelief, but much joy. His sister had already been notified that Edvard was among the estimated 1,500 passengers who had gone down with the unsinkable Titanic.

Nine years later, my father-in-law came to the United States. He changed his name to Edward Larson and settled in Minnesota. He worked for the Great Northern Railway as a bridge foreman for 40 years. He married at the age of 49 and fathered two sons, Bob and Barry Larson, both now Spokane Valley residents. Edward was 63 when his youngest son, my husband, Barry, was born.

Edward died in 1967. His widow, Mabel Larson, is still well and living at the Good Samaritan home in Fairfield.

Neither my sons nor I ever met Edward. But we have heard wonderful stories about him and we know through his sons that he was a good man.

My husband often says that he sees his father in both of our boys, Hans and Bryce. Both have inherited Grandfather Larson’s love for adventure and, especially, his enthusiasm for fishing and hunting.

Hans, who is now 12, took his hunter safety course and passed when he was only eight and enjoyed his first successful hunt at age 10. Nine-year-old Bryce favors yearround fishing with his dad while awaiting his first hunt.

I often stop and think that if Edward had sailed as planned on the Titanic that day, I might still be single, might never have experienced the joys of pregnancy, birth and motherhood. I would not have seen my boys win their wrestling medals and baseball trophies, or watched them catch their first fish.

I know for sure that I would probably never have gone snowmobiling or hiking in woods where bears frequent, or crawled up cliffs to explore caves.

For you see, I am not of the same adventurous blood as my three Larson men. But I am of the same family, owing deeply to the same twist of fate, and my life with them has been a wonderful adventure.

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