by Diane Hoh
It made Elizabeth physically ill to think that the terrible tragedy could have been averted. She could only hope the rumor wasn’t true.
“If it is,” Max said darkly, “there’ll be hell to pay. It’s bad enough we were short on lifeboats. Someone’s going to have to answer a lot of questions.”
A stewardess on board the Carpathia had borrowed clothing from two of its passengers for Elizabeth and her mother. While the apparel was not the height of fashion that Nola was used to, she was grateful. Lost in grief for her husband, she remained quiet and noncommittal, not even complaining that the ship was overcrowded, or that the lines waiting at the bathrooms to use the tubs stretched the length of a corridor. She had seemed to rejoice when she first saw Max, and though she later said she was happy for Enid and Jules, Elizabeth sensed that she was just as happy for Elizabeth. Nola never once mentioned Alan’s name, nor did she send him a Marconigram saying they were safe. It seemed to Elizabeth that the sudden loss of her mother’s one true love had given Nola a new understanding of just how important love really was.
Anticipating a scandal over the lack of lifeboats on board the Titanic, a congressman’s daughter who had been in Elizabeth’s lifeboat said, “I imagine there will be hearings. Investigations. I understand few people from third class survived, that whole families were lost. That will be a big scandal, too.” She sighed heavily. “Nothing will ever be the same, it seems to me.”
Elizabeth couldn’t say whether she thought that was true or not. She only knew that life would never be the same again for the Farrs. Nola roused herself from her grief enough to return Elizabeth’s good-night hugs with warmth and affection, making it clear that she was aware of her daughter’s presence and glad to have it.
“She won’t stay like this forever,” Elizabeth confided to Max as they were returning from lunch on Thursday. Nola, in need of a nap, had retreated to the cabin of the woman whose clothing she had borrowed. “She’ll be herself again, and maybe when that happens, she’ll push me at Alan again.”
There was mild alarm in Max’s face as he glanced over at her. Color had returned to his face, the redness had left his eyes, and except for the fact that he was still so chilled he had to wear two borrowed, heavy sweaters at a time, he was beginning to look like his old self.
Smiling, Elizabeth waved a hand in dismissal. “Don’t worry. I’ve made up my mind. She won’t change it for me.” The smile gone, she added seriously, “I know that young Irish couple I watched board the ship at Queenstown lost someone they cared about. I’ve seen their faces. I think it was the boy’s brother, who boarded with the girl. That boy couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty. He probably thought he had his whole life ahead of him.” She took Max’s hand in hers, held it tightly. “So I’m not wasting any time doing things other people want me to do, not even my own mother. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to manage it, but I am going to college, and I am going to choose my own friends.”
One of Max’s eyebrows lifted toward the sky. “Friends? That’s all I am, a friend? Do you know how cold that water was, Elizabeth? And I swam through it to get to you. Surely I deserve more than friendship for my efforts.”
Elizabeth laughed. “You know you’re more than that. And you know what I mean. I won’t forget my promise to my father, but it doesn’t worry me. I know my mother isn’t going to want a daughter hovering at her side every single minute. He never saw that independent side of her, but I have. It may take her a while, but sooner or later she’s going to realize we both have to live our own lives. I can wait. I can be patient. Now that I know I’m going to do what I want, there’s no rush.”
Max nodded. “You’re right. But while you’re waiting, are you going to be allowed to see me? We’ll both be in New York, and—”
Elizabeth tilted her head to look up at him. “Max, weren’t you listening? I just said I’m not wasting my time doing things dictated by other people. If I want to see you in New York, I shall.”
“I’m going to be living in a garret,” he warned, smiling down at her. “You don’t have a lot of experience with garrets.”
“I don’t have any experience with garrets. It might be fun to see one. I’ll consider it part of my education. But if you ask me, your parents are going to be so thrilled that you survived the Titanic, they’ll let you do whatever you want with your life.”
“I want to live in a garret, and make it on my own.”
“Then do it. I’m just saying if you wanted to, you could probably live in the nicest garret in all of New York City.”
They were on deck by then, the chilly fog having emptied it of all but the hardiest of strollers. When Elizabeth began talking again about how glad Max’s parents would be to see him, he kissed her to shut her up. They were driven inside a few moments later by lightning, thunder, and a vicious wind. They stayed inside until a steward walking by called out, “Fire Island just ahead. Only a few more hours and you’ll be safely in New York.”
When the storm ended, leaving a chill mist in its wake, they returned to the rail, and were soon joined by other survivors anxious for a glimpse of New York. Elizabeth, in her anticipation of finally arriving safely home, failed to notice the young Irish couple standing off to her left, also seeking refuge from the storm.
But Katie Hanrahan noticed Elizabeth, and clutching Paddy’s hand tightly, she smiled with satisfaction. The pretty girl had found her handsome young man. He, too, had survived the terrible disaster at sea. Perhaps that was his reward for saving Bridey and Kevin.
They looked happy to be together again.
And although she had never met the girl or the young man, the sight of the two of them standing at the rail holding hands and looking toward the shore together filled Katie with a deep sense of peace.
She had set out for America with only high hopes and a vision for the future. She was landing on its shores with a greater appreciation of life itself and with Paddy Kelleher’s hand in hers. They had lost Brian, someone they both loved deeply, but they had survived. They would mourn Brian. But they would never stop being thankful for their own lives.
Though she knew they would never forget the long, terrifying voyage, it was over now. Malachy and Lottie would be waiting for them when they stepped off the Carpathia. They would whisk her and Paddy off to Brooklyn, feed them hot soup and fresh bread, and listen with wide, disbelieving eyes to the tale of the sinking of the Titanic.
It would be a tale they would tell many times. But for all the telling, it never would lose its horror.
She was about to step on the shores of America for the first time. And for her, as for all the others who had not been swallowed up by the dark sea, life would begin anew.
Epilogue
A LIGHT, CHILLY MIST was falling on the city of New York as the seven hundred survivors of the sinking of the Titanic, at nine-thirty P.M. on Wednesday, April 17,1912, disembarked from the steamer Carpathia via fore and aft gangways. Wealthier passengers evaded a host of reporters and photographers lying in wait for them and were whisked away in private cars by relatives and friends.
Max Whittaker’s parents greeted him with unabashed joy.
Elizabeth Farr and her mother were met by Martin’s grieving parents and taken immediately to the elder Farrs’ Manhattan town house.
Malachy and Charlotte Hanrahan of Brooklyn, New York, were forced to endure a long, chilly wait near Pier 54 for their niece from Ireland, as third-class passengers were the last to depart the Carpathia. It was close to eleven o’clock on the dreary, dismal April night when this last group of survivors began emerging from the aft gangway.
Other third-class passengers had lost everything but their lives. Without funds for hotel rooms or further travel, they were remanded to the care of the Women’s Relief Committee or the American Red Cross.
There were no reporters waiting when this last group of one hundred seventy-four Titanic survivors straggled out into the open air. This oversight proved beneficial to Patri
ck Kelleher who, three years later, published a moving account of what that last night on the Titanic was like for passengers in third class, a story no one else had ever told as movingly as Paddy did. The Long, Dark Night received rave reviews, and though Paddy wrote novels throughout his life, it was that first book that made his fortune.
It was dedicated to the memory of his brother, Brian.
Katie Hanrahan found, to her great distress, that New York City was not to her liking. On the funds from the sale of his first book, Paddy took her back to Ireland, where they married and lived out their lives in Dublin, raising three children: Brian, Eugenie, and Fiona. Katie taught piano and voice to children in the area and when she wasn’t starring in local theater productions, studied English grammar at length in order to do Paddy’s “grammarizin’ ” for him.
Elizabeth Langston Farr graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, with a degree in Literature. She taught at a private girls’ school in Manhattan, becoming headmistress four years after her marriage to Maxwell Whittaker. She continued at the school throughout her life, with Max’s support. They had no children, but Elizabeth considered herself surrogate mother to the girls in her school and was not discontented.
Max achieved modest success as a painter.
Nola Farr remarried three years after the Titanic disaster, to a French ambassador, and moved to Paris.
Though she missed her mother, Elizabeth put off visiting her as long as possible, reluctant to board a ship again.
But when she and Max eventually traveled to France, they sailed without incident, enjoying a safe and pleasant trip.
Resources
Ballard, Robert D. Exploring the Titanic. New York: Scholastic. Canada: Madison Press, 1988.
Eaton, John P. and Charles A. Haas. Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. London: W.W. Norton &Company, 1988,1994.
Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955.
Lynch, Don and Ken Marschall. Titanic, An Illustrated History. New York: Hyperion. Canada: Madison Press Books. 1992.
A Biography of Diane Hoh
Diane Hoh (b. 1937) is a bestselling author of young-adult fiction. Born in Warren, Pennsylvania, Hoh grew up with eight siblings and parents who encouraged her love of reading from an early age. After high school, she spent a year at St. Bonaventure University before marrying and raising three children. She and her family moved often, finally settling in Austin, Texas.
Hoh sold two stories to Young Miss magazine, but did not attempt anything longer until her children were fully grown. She began her first novel, Loving That O’Connor Boy (1985), after seeing an ad in a publishing trade magazine requesting submissions for a line of young-adult fiction. Although the manuscript was initially rejected, Hoh kept writing, and she soon completed her second full-length novel, Brian’s Girl (1985). One year later, her publisher reversed course, buying both novels and launching Hoh’s career as a young-adult author.
After contributing novels to two popular series, Cheerleaders and the Girls of Canby Hall, Hoh found great success writing thrillers, beginning with Funhouse (1990), a Point Horror novel that became a national bestseller. Following its success, Hoh created the Nightmare Hall series, whose twenty-nine novels chronicle a university plagued by dark secrets. After concluding Nightmare Hall with 1995’s The Voice in the Mirror, Hoh wrote Virus (1996), which introduced the seven-volume Med Center series, which charts the challenges and mysteries of a hospital in Massachusetts.
In 1998, Hoh had a runaway hit with Titanic: The Long Night, a story of two couples—one rich, one poor—and their escape from the doomed ocean liner. That same year, Hoh released Remembering the Titanic, which picked up the story one year later. Together, the two were among Hoh’s most popular titles. She continues to live and write in Austin.
An eleven-year-old Hoh with her best friend, Margy Smith. Hoh’s favorite book that year was Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune.
A card from Hoh’s mother written upon the publication of her daughter’s first book. Says Hoh, “This meant everything to me. My mother was a passionate reader, as was my dad.”
Hoh and her mother in Ireland in 1985. Hoh recalls, “I kissed the Blarney Stone, which she said was redundant because I already had the ‘gift of gab.’ Later, I would use some of what we saw there in Titanic: The Long Night as Paddy, Brian, and Katie deported from Ireland.”
An unused publicity photo of Hoh.
Hoh with her daughter Jenny in Portland, Oregon, in 2008. Says Hoh, “While there, I received a call from a young filmmaker in Los Angeles who wanted to make The Train into a film. They ran out of money before the project got off the ground. Such is life.”
Hoh in 1991, addressing a class at the junior high she had attended in Warren, Pennsylvania.
A 1995 photo taken in Austin, Texas, with Hoh’s grandchildren. Says Hoh, “Although my deadlines for Nightmare Hall were tight, I made time for my grandchildren: Mike, Alex, and Rachel. I'm so glad they live here.”
A current photo of Hoh at home in Austin, Texas.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1998 by Diane Hoh
cover design by Andrea Uva
978-1-4532-4818-8
This edition published in 2012 by Open Road Integrated Media
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