Fermina Oliva y Ocana

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October 12th, 1872 - May 28th, 1969

She is a Libra.

Doña Fermina Oliva y Ocana was born in Madid, Spain. She was one of 10 Spanish Titanic passengers. When she was very young she left her hometown and went to Madid to help her family. There, she established herself as a dressmaker and was later offered to be Victor Peñasco y Castellana and Maria Josefa Pérez de Soto Vallejo Peñascocompanion during their honeymoon. The couple married in 1910 and wanted to have a luxurious honeymoon across Europe that would last more then 2 years.

Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912:
On the evening of April 10th, 1912, in Cherbourg, Fermina embarked on the RMS Titanic with Victor and Maria. They occupied 2 first class cabins on C-Deck. Victor and Maria stayed in cabin C-65 and Fermina stayed in C-109. On the night of the sinking, Fermina was in her cabin sewing her corset and couldn't sleep. Shortly before midnight on April 15th, 1912, Fermina, who had just laid down on her bed, noticed how the impact of the ship against the iceberg suddenly stopped the course of the ship. The ship's employees told her there was no problem but after a short while Victor came to call her, and the couple went up on the boat deck, where they were told that the accident wasn't serious.

Time passed and after midnight, the first lifeboats began to descend. Before the 3 headed to the boat deck, Fermina only took among other objects in her luggage, a picture of Saint Joseph that she had under her bed, tucking it under the lifebelt and entrusting himself to her. Maria had to be forced aboard lifeboat 8 on the port side against her will, since Victor couldn't accompany her due to the women and children only rule on the port side of the ship. Victor managed to detach himself from Maria by throwing into the arms of 2 passengers who were preparing to board the boat. They were Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes, who had previously tried to persuade her without success, and her cousin Gladys Cherry. The boat begin to descend and Fermina, seized by the fear of being in a sinking ship and surrounded by people who did not speak her language, began to cry and shout, which an officer "threw her like a sack of straw" onto the boat, where he met his mistress. Victor died in the sinking while Maria and Fermina survived the sinking. They both boarded the RMS Carpathia exhausted.

After The Sinking/Later Life/Death:
After the experience, Fermina didn't want to speak of this said fact again. However in a November of 1959 when she was 87 and on the occasion of the premiere in Spain of British film about the sinking of the Titanic, The Last Night of the Titanic, was granted a brief interview to the newspaper ABC. She returned to her life as seamstress at her house on Calle Regueros in Madid, which she would later turn into a pension, and continued working for a few more years for Maria. She was always single and had no children.

Maria died in 1972 at the age of 83 and Maria died on March 28th, 1969 at the age of 96 and was buried in the La Almundena Cemetery.

Sources:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
second.wiki/wiki

Rest In Peace Fermina Oliva y Ocana.

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