5 Minutes Late

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Titanic is on right now and it reminded me that I wanted to share this story my Grandma told me. I wonder how many of my cousins actually know this...

So my mom's side of the family is totally Norwegian. Eventually they came over here and settled mostly in Iowa (I don't know why they picked Iowa but oh well). But I was always curious how my ancestors came over.

Apparantly, my grandmother's father (I think) had a third class passenger ticket for the Titanic. Now I am not sure how well versed everyone is with the story of the Titanic, but the third class passengers didn't exactly do too well in the crash.

Thankfully, my great grandfather was running a little behind schedule. He missed the departure for the Titanic by 5 MINUTES!! Five minutes. If he hadn't been running 5 minutes late, he most likely would have died on the Titanic, my entire family would not exist, and none of you wouldn't have had the joy of knowing me (just kidding about that last one).

But seriously... he was 5 minutes late.

Since he missed the Titanic, he caught a ride on the Carpathia which is the ship that went and picked up the survivors from the Titanic. He then landed in Canada and snuck across the border.

You just never know how much 5 minutes can change things.

Love, Mrs. Janney

PS - Truthfully I am not sure if it was my grandmother's father or grandfather or if it was me grandfather's father/grandfather. Either way, it was a direct ancestor of mine.