Hello to everyone following the Edwina C Trout, Titanic personality.
I had the pleasure of personally meeting Edwina in Australia in 1981. This was in Queensland and in a suburb of Brisbane called Mt Gravatt. She was staying with neighbors of mine. I came home from work(I was in the Airforce) and the family I lived with said," Go up the road and meet a lady from the Titanic."
Which I promptly did. She was so spritely and alive and I had no idea at the time that she was 97 years old !!.
She excitedly told us of her ordeal and to confirm that she too told me she was on lifeboat 13. She said they sung a song on the lifeboat called, " row for the shore Sailor, row for the shore" she then commenced singing it for us. I had a small bottle of beer in my hand when I went up to meet her. She saw it in my hand and asked what it was. I told her, "it's beer". She then exclaimed, "Beer"! Then she commenced to sing, " Beer, Beer, Glorious Beer !!" A song she must have known from her past.
I'm am speaking the truth to you all. It was such an entertaining moment. We had our photo taken together which I still have to this day. This was only three years before she passed away, and she's travelling to Australia ! Along with the photo, she also wrote on a piece of paper to go with the photo: Edwina C MacKenzie ( nee Trout )
2nd Class Passenger RMS TITANIC
oldest surviving passenger. " it's Great to be Alive "
The following day my neighbors who she stayed with, contacted a Brisbane TV station and they came out, ran an interview with her for a current affairs program. They produced a wonderful story that night, with clips from archive footage etc, and she sang row for the shores while they played the clips as part of the recording. They then treated her like a VIP taking her around Brisbane the next few days.
A truly inspiring woman to meet and meant so much to me to meet her at the time.