For many people, the sinking of the Titanic exemplifies the risks of luxury sea travel, even in the supposedly best and safest circumstances. For Frances Taylor and her family, the Titanic represents the power of destiny to reshape lives and herald a new beginning.
Back in 1912, Frances Taylor was a shy, curly-haired 3-year-old. And she was coming to America. Her Scottish daddy was already here, making a fresh start. Things were looking up: he had rented a new house for the family and had saved some money. So he booked tickets for his wife and his five children to join him. That passage was on the Titanic.
Frances knew this story by heart. A bit of memory, and a bit of the telling of the story by her own parents. Much later, from her home in Lake Forrest, Orange County, California, she told it many times to her children, grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, who never tired of hearing it.
Gamrie, Scotland, is a small town on the North Sea coast, about 40 miles north of Aberdeen. It had been many months since Frances’s father had left. Now in the United States, he was eager to be reunited with her brood. He had a lot to tell them. And she would have woken up early, as usual, on the morning of April 15, 1912, then she would have washed and dressed for work. She probably wouldn’t have bought a newspaper (he was Scottish, after all) and he needed her money for other things. But he would have heard the news:
TITANIC DISASTER – GREAT LOSS OF LIFE
For Frances’s family, the dramatic events of 1912 that impacted the family were indeed a headline, a personal headline. Seeing articles and documentaries over the years about the terrible event, they thought that his Frances deserved a documentary. She The story warranted a proper retelling and permanent record, like the other Titanic survivors.
In reality, 3-year-old Frances and her family didn’t make it aboard the Titanic. Third booked, her Titanic tickets were still a hot property. And, as family history goes, the family was dropped from the passenger list at the last minute in favor of some higher-status travelers. They would travel to the New World on another ship.
Is the shock of a big loss less because it turns out later that the news was wrong? Frances’s father was overwhelmed by reports of the sinking of the Titanic. His labor, her sacrifice, was in vain. He only later found out that his family was safe. She would have collapsed a second time, this time with relief. She became the stuff of family legend.
Frances survived the Titanic. Boy, did she survive. She survived her near miss on the Titanic by 97 years. Talk about making the gods of fate pay.
Frances Taylor died on October 6 of last year at her daughter’s home in Lake Forest. Just before that, she was honored at Disneyland in Anaheim and drew local headlines reading “Woman Who Averted Titanic Disaster Celebrates Her 100th Birthday at Disneyland.” And Frances took one more boat ride, this time in one of those little boats that leisurely transport passengers through the “It’s a Small World” attraction. She was 100 years old and had survived the sinking of the Titanic by a whopping 97 years.
Before she passed away, her daughter Maggie Winn helped put together a custom video biographical documentary for her mother, just like “A&E.” Speaking later, she said: “She left in peace. We played the video of her at her memorial and received so many wonderful compliments. It was so moving and beautiful and funny.”
Frances’s family prospered after they all arrived safely in the United States. And his story of surviving the Titanic made succeeding generations even more appreciative of the opportunities afforded them by that first lonely Scotsman who thought he had lost everything.
And Frances’s story finally got the attention it deserved, at least as far as her grateful family was concerned.