Roll Back the Clouds, my
new novel about the Lusitania, releases on March 17. Many of the passengers
aboard the ill-fated, final voyage appear alongside main characters, Geoff and
Rosaleen Bonnard. I’ll be profiling several of them here. This week, meet Norah
and Betty Bretherton.
Norah Bretherton immigrated in 1910 to
join her fiancé in Santa Monica, California. Five years later, she sailed on
the Lusitania with her two young children because she wanted to
introduce them to their grandparents. Norah was 32, her son Paul was 3, and
daughter Betty was 15 months.
At
the time the Lusitania was torpedoed, Norah had been on the stairs
between B and C decks. She retrieved Betty from a nursery on B deck and took
her up to A Deck, where the lifeboats hung. Paul was napping in their cabin on
C deck. Norah failed to persuade anyone to fetch her son for her, and finally
thrust Betty into the arms of a man and hastened downstairs. When she and Paul
returned to the boat deck, the man no longer had Betty. It is unknown if he placed
her in a lifeboat that capsized.
Norah
placed an advertisement in the Cork Examiner:
Missing:
A baby girl, 15 months old, very fair hair, curled, rosy complexion, in a white
woolen jersey and leggings. Tries to walk and talk. Name Betty Bretheron.
Please send any information to Miss Browne, Bishop’s House, Queenstown.
Betty’s
body was recovered four days after the sinking, and is buried in a convent in
Cork, Ireland.
In
Roll Back the Clouds, Rosaleen Bonnard, longing for motherhood, enjoys
playing with babies in the nursery. Betty was one of her little friends.
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