Post by jessicab on May 23, 2006 16:23:52 GMT -5
Mrs Hedvig Turkula, 63, from Jalasjärvi, Finland boarded the Titanic at Southampton. She was travelling to Hibbing Minnesota. Most of her family (she had four sons, two daughters and some thirty grandchildren on different farms in Minnesota) had preceded her to America, and, as a widow, she had decided it was time to go to them to live out her life. Her husband, Isaac Kujala Turkula, had died some ten years before.
She started her journey from Vaasa Laani, Finland, eventually arriving at Southampton where she boarded the Titanic as a third class passenger .
She was asleep when the ship struck the iceberg and was helped to the deck and into a lifeboat (15) by another Finn, Eino Lindqvist. Also helping her into the lifeboat was "a minor officer" who appeared to be intoxicated.
On arrival to New York she was sent to St. Vincent Hospital. Later, she told the Finnish-American Newspaper in New York how she couldn't understand that "She, an old woman, was saved, while so many young women had gone down with the ship." She added that she had no bad effects from her experience other than a slight cold. Mrs Turkula would live only 10 more years after Titanic.
Documents
Hibbing Daily Tribune, April 6, 1922, Obituary
State of Minnesota Certificate of Death
References
Claes-Göran Wetterholm (1988, 1996, 1999) Titanic. Prisma, Stockholm. ISBN 91 518 3644 0
Acknowledgements
Phillip Gowan, USA
Juho Peltonen, Finland
Leif Snellman, Finland
Claes-Göran Wetterholm, Sweden
Website credit: www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/1273/
Below are photos of my great great grandmother, Hedvig Turkula.
(left)
Hedvig Turkula was rescued by Carpathia. She beat several odds including the fact that she was asleep, led by a drunken officer, was on a sinking ship, but, ironically, died of something as simple as influenza! And I still have family living up in Hibbing, and in fact, we're going to visit this summer!
She started her journey from Vaasa Laani, Finland, eventually arriving at Southampton where she boarded the Titanic as a third class passenger .
She was asleep when the ship struck the iceberg and was helped to the deck and into a lifeboat (15) by another Finn, Eino Lindqvist. Also helping her into the lifeboat was "a minor officer" who appeared to be intoxicated.
On arrival to New York she was sent to St. Vincent Hospital. Later, she told the Finnish-American Newspaper in New York how she couldn't understand that "She, an old woman, was saved, while so many young women had gone down with the ship." She added that she had no bad effects from her experience other than a slight cold. Mrs Turkula would live only 10 more years after Titanic.
Documents
Hibbing Daily Tribune, April 6, 1922, Obituary
State of Minnesota Certificate of Death
References
Claes-Göran Wetterholm (1988, 1996, 1999) Titanic. Prisma, Stockholm. ISBN 91 518 3644 0
Acknowledgements
Phillip Gowan, USA
Juho Peltonen, Finland
Leif Snellman, Finland
Claes-Göran Wetterholm, Sweden
Website credit: www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/1273/
Below are photos of my great great grandmother, Hedvig Turkula.
(left)
Hedvig Turkula was rescued by Carpathia. She beat several odds including the fact that she was asleep, led by a drunken officer, was on a sinking ship, but, ironically, died of something as simple as influenza! And I still have family living up in Hibbing, and in fact, we're going to visit this summer!