A very strange tale of survival!

A VERY STRANGE STORY !

As related to me by a lovely elderly lady. Whilst the story may have become embellished over time, I believe on balance, that most of it is true.

It was during WW2  in Wallasey (the Wirral, Cheshire) and Gertrude and her husband were in bed. They heard the planes overhead and then the terrible sounds of nearby house being bombed.

Her husband immediately got up and went outside into the street to help. He found a woman very shell shocked but alive, but the person she was staying with had perished. Being a good neighbour, Maurice brought the woman to their home. Gertrude, a nurse attended the lady, whilst Maurice a Sailor brought her whisky and hot water.

Gertrude noticed her husband making gestures at her – the sign to “zip it” and not to speak and she realised that he did not wish them to offer this stranger a bed for the night.   Gertrude was perplexed with his attitude but acknowledged that he was quite adamant about his decision.

“Why” she asked later?

“No way – she will not stay in our house, listen to this” he replied. “When she lived in London, her house was bombed, so she moved to live with friends the Midlands. In the Midlands the house was bombed, she was dug out, but her friends died. She then returned to London and the house she was living in was bombed, and yet again she survived. Now in Wallasey, yet again she has walked away unscathed from a bombing raid, when the person she was living with has died. Four times she has Survived.”

Maurice continued, “ There is more, she told me that when she was just a baby she was on passage to America, and the ship sunk. She was thrown to a couple in the lifeboat and they brought her up as their own child.”

Gertrude said “was this the Titanic?” “No” Maurice replied, “It was earlier than that.  Just listen to this, in 1912, when she was 21, her adoptive parents asked her what she would like for her birthday, and she said she would like to visit the USA to find out about her parents. They went on the Titanic, her adoptive parents died and she survived”. Maurice continued, “There is no way that woman would ever stay in our home”.

Maurice in fact took her to the collection point for people who had been made homeless. They had just missed the bus and another was not due for quite some time. Just to make sure that she didn't try to go home with him, he drove her 25 miles to the reception centre in Birkenhead and prayed all the way there that the bombers had returned to Germany.

Note, I have searched for shipwrecks circa 1891-1892 but haven't found anything conclusive. Perhaps the story has become enriched over time, but the old saying there is no smoke without fire is apt in this case.