Anna Salkjelsvik
Anna Kristine Salkjelsvik was a Third Class Passenger who boarded Titanic in Southampton with 5 other Norwegians, among which was also Olaus Abelseth. Her destination was Proctor, Minnesota, where her sister Olivia lived. Anna Kristine Johansen was born on October 30th 1890 in Skodje, Norway, to carpenter Ole Iver Johansen Grodas and Anna Marie Salkjelsvik. She had 9 siblings. The family was Roman Catholic.
She shared a cabin with Karen Abelseth, a family friend of Olaus, but no relative, and 2 other young women, probably Swedes. The other Norwegians she got to know were Sigurd Moen, the brother-in-law of Olaus, and the latter's cousin Peter Søholt.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the late night of April 14, when Titanic had encountered an iceberg and couldn't avoid it. Anna was fast asleep. Suddenly, the Norwegian men that she had met came from their part of the ship all the way aft, because they had noticed a problem and were here to warn the ladies. Upon hearing the news, the group went to the Aft Well Deck to await the stewards' instructions. One approached them to take the ladies with them. In the crowd, Karen and Anna lost eachother and Karen left in lifeboat 16.
Anna left the sinking ship in the Collapsible C lifeboat and was reunited with Karen aboard the Carpathia.
Anna had finally made it to her destination: Proctor in Minnesota, where her sister lived. She fell in love with William Larsen, a machinist in a car shop of a railway company. He was also from Norway and had migrated to the town in July 1909. They became married in 7 September 1912. Four children were born to this union: Margaret Nelson in 1813, Ernest in 1918, followed by Astor in 1915, and in 1919, their last child was born: Vivian Janet Sandeno Olafson.
Throughout her life, Anna had suffered from survivor's guilt. Not really willing to talk much about the event that had so much impact on her, she did however follow the interviews of fellow survivors on TV, or read about it when something Titanic-related was published in a newspaper.
She passed away on the 21st of September 1977, after spending her last years as a widow, She died in the Chris Jensen Nursing Home in Duluth, St. Louis, Minnesota, where she died at the age of 86.