Page: 1 2
MurdochsAid
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 745
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
 Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
Titanic's survivors paid heavy emotional and physical price
________________
Local women's father was one who lived to tell all about that fateful journey
________________
By Kathleen Alaks
of The Daily Courier
________________
True Edwin Lundstrom was 32 when he embarked on an adventure that would alter the course of his life.
True, the young Swede had been on adventures before. When he was 20, he immigrated to the United States, where he attended the Swedish Inland Mission near Fresno, California.
When he was 29, he became a missionary to China, where he spent two years working with remote villagers and learning to speak Chinese. After receiving a triple-dose smallpox vaccine that almost killed him, he was sent back to Sweden to recuperate.
But it was one year later, at age 32, that he found himself bound to America with his fiance Elida Olsson, her sister and her sister's two children, on what would turn out to be the adventure of a lifetime.
***
It was April 1912, and Lundstrom was traveling aboard the new Titanic.
Though he survived the luxury ocean liner's tragic sinking, which occurred 86 years ago today, Lundstrom never married Olsson. She was among the 1,517 passengers who didn't escape the grasp of the icy Atlantic.
Instead, he went on to make a new life. He moved to Los Angeles, met and married Signe Peterson, raised a family and became a hardwood floor layer. It wasn't until after he died in 1942 that his children were even aware of this "other woman" in their father's life, says Ingrid Wikstrom, who was 15 when her father passed away.
"It was kind of bittersweet to find out," she says. "I mean, hey, I wouldn't be here if Daddy hadn't survived or if he had married this other woman."
Ingrid and her older sister Enez Kasperson, who both live in Grants Pass, Oregon, say though Lundstrom went on to make a happy life for himself, the memories of that terrible April night stayed with him until his death.
"It was a horrible experience for anyone to go through," says Enez, who turned 83 last week, born three years after the tragedy. "He said it was bedlam. He had horrible nightmares. I can still remember him screaming out at night, 'I can't save them. I can't save them'."
A letter that Lundstrom wrote to his father back in Sweden a month after the accident describes the scene:
quote:
"The trip from Southampton was so wonderful that one barely had an inkling that one was on the ocean. On that Sunday night, the liner hit an iceberg and sank after two and a half hours.
"We were all sleeping good when the ship hit, but awakened immediately...I followed my friends to the second class deck where they should get into the life . Surely I thought them saved as they obtained spaces in the . I myself along with my 18-year-old friend Albin Klasen went back to the third class deck to wait for the end."
During that wait, Enez says, her father, a compassionate man, did what he could to help others find lifejackets and life. And as a devout and zealous Christian, he did what he could to help others find comfort.
"He came across a group of 10/or 15 young men who were very frightened," she recalls him telling her. "He said, 'Let's pray' and he led them all to the Lord. Then they all jumped in the water and let God take over."
According to his letter, Lundstrom was ready to let the Lord take over his ownfate as well:
quote:
"All the life were gone as I stood on the third class deck parying. A calmness filled my soul as only a person could feel that has left themselves in God's had. I didn't feel any fear about death. I prayed that God's will for my life would be done and that if it was meant for me to live He would show me a way to be rescued."
Ingrid says he told them he was rescued by shimmying down a rope he found hanging from the rail, jumping into the water and swimming for a nearby lifeboat. Enez remembers him saying he was wearing a wool overcoat, wool socks and shoes and that he had to kick off his shoes and coat in order to stay afloat in the water.
quote:
"I didn't swim long before I was taken on one of the life," Lundstrom wrote, "where I stood, soaking wet for oever four hours in water."
The lifeboat already was carrying several dead bodies when it stopped to pick him up. Those who were able spent hours that evening scooping water out of the craft to keep it from sinking. For the rest of his life, Lundstrom suffered from the effects of frostbite on the lower part of his legs and feet.
His letter ends:
quote:
"After 20 minutes after I had been rescued the liner sank taking several hundred with it to the deep. This was a huge horrible catastrophic drama playing before my eyes."
Though he didn't like talking about the incident, Lundstrom occasionally shared his story with others as a form of religious testimony.
"He always said how God saw fit to let him live and have a family and how grateful he was to God for his family," Ingrid recalls. "His love for people and his love for God were what kept him going."
Seeing the recently released Academu-award-winning movie about the Titanic, gave Ingrid an even closer connection to her father, she says.
Especially moving was the scene near the end where Kate Winslet is floating on the wreckage with search crews scouting the water for survivors.
"I thought, 'Daddy, you were really there. That could have been you.'" ~ (C) Grants Pass Daily Courier, Wednesday, April 15, 1998
Last edited by MurdochsAid, Feb/14/2007, 8:35 pm
---
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. ~ Romans 1:16
|
|
Feb/14/2007, 8:29 pm
|
EMAILMurdochsAid
PM MurdochsAid
|
wills
Head Administrator
Global user
Registered: 02-2004
Posts: 3963
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
MA ,
Thanks for posting that. It is a truely good article..
Though do you the copywright permission on this ? In other words do you have the authors permission to post it here?
If not please contact them and ask otherwise I have to take off. Just one of the many headaches to being a captain..
anyway I do love the post it is a great story indeed.
will
---
Suicide is a permenant solution to a temporay problem........
Whatever obstacles control,
Go on, true heart,
thou'lt reach the goal.
http://com4.runboard.com/bthetitanicshack
wills~~~~~
|
|
Feb/15/2007, 3:02 pm
|
EMAILwills
PM wills
journal
|
MurdochsAid
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 745
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
quote:
wills wrote:
MA ,
Thanks for posting that. It is a truely good article..
Though do you the copywright permission on this ? In other words do you have the authors permission to post it here?
If not please contact them and ask otherwise I have to take off. Just one of the many headaches to being a captain..
anyway I do love the post it is a great story indeed.
will
You know what? I don't know if the GP Daily Courier is still in business, or if it changed hands to take on a different name. Since I'm as much in the dark as you are, shall I simply:
a. delete (c) GP Daily Couries source at the end of the article, or what?
b. Or on the other hand, wouldn't it be the same as including a website of where one finds a picture as a form of credit?
c. Or delete the writer's name?
d. Or just delete a & c?
Incidentally, when I saw TITANIC the second time, that was when I met both the Lundstrom sisters, Ingrid & Enez, outside of the GP cinema while waiting to buy our tickets to see the film in the same viewing room.
MA
---
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. ~ Romans 1:16
|
|
Feb/16/2007, 1:26 am
|
EMAILMurdochsAid
PM MurdochsAid
|
wills
Head Administrator
Global user
Registered: 02-2004
Posts: 3963
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
so long as you have permission to put the article up...that would be fine for me..
will
it is a great article though ..
---
Suicide is a permenant solution to a temporay problem........
Whatever obstacles control,
Go on, true heart,
thou'lt reach the goal.
http://com4.runboard.com/bthetitanicshack
wills~~~~~
|
|
Feb/18/2007, 12:12 am
|
EMAILwills
PM wills
journal
|
MurdochsAid
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 745
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
It is a great article, isn't it!?
Ya' know? Since it is an old article...like around 8 or 9-years-old, I really don't think that they would care one way or the other. Besides, I clipped it out of the newspaper to add to my Titanic collection.
MA
Last edited by MurdochsAid, Feb/19/2007, 4:35 am
---
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. ~ Romans 1:16
|
|
Feb/18/2007, 8:13 pm
|
EMAILMurdochsAid
PM MurdochsAid
|
wills
Head Administrator
Global user
Registered: 02-2004
Posts: 3963
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
ok .. but first sing of trouble it is locked ok..
will
---
Suicide is a permenant solution to a temporay problem........
Whatever obstacles control,
Go on, true heart,
thou'lt reach the goal.
http://com4.runboard.com/bthetitanicshack
wills~~~~~
|
|
Feb/18/2007, 9:54 pm
|
EMAILwills
PM wills
journal
|
MurdochsAid
Global user
Registered: 06-2003
Posts: 745
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
quote:
wills wrote:
ok .. but first sing of trouble it is locked ok..
will
It's a deal, Will. But I really don't think any kind of trouble will come a knockin'. I really don't. Do you?
MA
---
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. ~ Romans 1:16
|
|
Feb/19/2007, 4:37 am
|
EMAILMurdochsAid
PM MurdochsAid
|
wills
Head Administrator
Global user
Registered: 02-2004
Posts: 3963
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
Let's hope not er else MA is gonna get a spanking..
lol..william
---
Suicide is a permenant solution to a temporay problem........
Whatever obstacles control,
Go on, true heart,
thou'lt reach the goal.
http://com4.runboard.com/bthetitanicshack
wills~~~~~
|
|
Feb/19/2007, 11:27 pm
|
EMAILwills
PM wills
journal
|
wills
Head Administrator
Global user
Registered: 02-2004
Posts: 3963
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Edwin Lundstrom, 3rd Class Passenger
aye, me lady I am pretty fast ya better start running... mawhahahahahaha here comes william......
will
---
Suicide is a permenant solution to a temporay problem........
Whatever obstacles control,
Go on, true heart,
thou'lt reach the goal.
http://com4.runboard.com/bthetitanicshack
wills~~~~~
|
|
Feb/20/2007, 11:32 am
|
EMAILwills
PM wills
journal
|
Add reply
Page: 1 2
Link to us
- Blogs
- Hall of Honour
- Chat
|
You are not signed in (sign in)
Board's time is: Nov/28/2009, 12:22 pm
|
|
|
