Miss Kristina Sofia Laitinen was born on 12 October 1873 in Riistavesi, near Kuopio, Finland.

She moved to Helsinki in 1905, where she worked at the School For The Blind for three years. After this job she worked for some time at a Missionary House, and then she took care of merchant K. Koskinen's household as a hostess. She had no opportunity for education, except for confirmation school, but she was described by her friends as a person always willing to learn something new, dedicating her spare time to reading.

In 1911 one of Sofia Laitinen's friends left for the United States, and she lent this friend some money on the condition that she would be sent a ticket to the New World. She received the promised ticket in November, but she was unable to make up her mind whether to leave or stay; so the voyage was postponed until April, when she sailed on the Titanic which she boarded at Southampton as a third Class passenger.

Sofia had some strange premonitions of impending disaster. One night she had a dream in which she fell into a well filled with ice-cold water . . . just like that of the Atlantic on that cold April night.

Miss Laitinen's body was never found.