Inger Sheil
Member
Very sorry that you've lost your grandmother, Beverley - and in such a desperately sad way. Alzheimers is such a devestating illness, and so very cruel for those who suffer from it.
One thing that does occur to me is that Kate might not have just jumped into bed with another man in NY on a whim or because she was 'loose'. She was a young woman who had gone through the trauma of the sinking, who had just lost the man who was apparently the love of her life, and she was unmarried and alone in a strange country. It is possible that a less than scrupulous individual exploited her in her extremely vulnerable position, and used the pretext of helping her to manipulate her into a sexual encounter/s. It is certainly not unheard of for sexual predators to prey on a woman in a situation like that.
From what Senan has mentioned in another post, the days between her arrival in New York and her sailing overseas again are rather hazy - she did tell a story about having been taken in and looked after by a woman, but I wonder if there might have been a man involved as well (possibly connected with that household, or one that she met through other circumstances). It might explain why she felt so bitterly towards your grandmother in after years if she was born out of an encounter like this, rather than to the man Kate had loved and lost.
At any rate, that is speculation on my part, and you would be quite right to point that out. If you do happen to hear more about the DNA tests I'm sure we'd all appreciate hearing about them, but given that this is a time of grief for you and your family I can understand that such matters would be the very least of your concerns right now.
One thing that does occur to me is that Kate might not have just jumped into bed with another man in NY on a whim or because she was 'loose'. She was a young woman who had gone through the trauma of the sinking, who had just lost the man who was apparently the love of her life, and she was unmarried and alone in a strange country. It is possible that a less than scrupulous individual exploited her in her extremely vulnerable position, and used the pretext of helping her to manipulate her into a sexual encounter/s. It is certainly not unheard of for sexual predators to prey on a woman in a situation like that.
From what Senan has mentioned in another post, the days between her arrival in New York and her sailing overseas again are rather hazy - she did tell a story about having been taken in and looked after by a woman, but I wonder if there might have been a man involved as well (possibly connected with that household, or one that she met through other circumstances). It might explain why she felt so bitterly towards your grandmother in after years if she was born out of an encounter like this, rather than to the man Kate had loved and lost.
At any rate, that is speculation on my part, and you would be quite right to point that out. If you do happen to hear more about the DNA tests I'm sure we'd all appreciate hearing about them, but given that this is a time of grief for you and your family I can understand that such matters would be the very least of your concerns right now.
