Chapter 22

Epilogue

The newlyweds spent a five days in Scotland where no one bothered them or even paid attention to the fact that Joseph had been an Officer on the Titanic and that his young bride was a survivor. News of the wedding had made it back to London and when they returned to Hull to begin to move into their new home, Joseph's parents informed them how reporters wanted to interview them about how they had found love despite the tragedy. Celina tore up the letters and Joseph threw them into the fire for extra measure.

They moved into the home just in time, because before they knew it, Joseph was saying goodbye to Celina to go and sail on the Adriatic. It was one of the longest waits of Celina's life and it was only busying herself with Ella and decorating their home that she managed to survive it.

Celina's nightmares of the Titanic eventually became less frequent and they were almost totally gone when Joseph came home one day to tell her that he was thinking about joining the Royal Navy. War was on the horizon and while Celina did not like the idea, they both agreed that it was his duty to Britain to serve her. She barely had any sleep for the four long years of that Great War. He was able to have certain times to come home and visit, but they were never longer than two weeks (if they were even lucky to get that much.)

After they had wed Celina had told Joseph that she wanted to wait to have children because she had spent the last three years being a mother and now with the help of others to raise Ella, she wanted a break from it all, and in retrospect she was glad because she would have been devastated if they had become parents while he was fighting in the war. Within a month of his return, Celina was expecting a baby and in September of 1919, she went into labor, ten months after Armistice Day.

Joseph was a wreck and never left his spot from outside of their room for the entire time she was in labor, which was ten hours. Finally a tiny cry was heard and Joseph jumped up from his seat, his ear pressed to the door. Eleanor looked up at her brother in law and remained seated, deciding that she would rise when the door actually opened (she had become a very wise and clever little girl.) A moment later the doctor opened the door and smiled warmly at Joseph, "You may go in now, Mr. Boxhall."

Joseph looked at the man in disbelief before pushing past him and rushing to Celina's side. Her eyes were closed as she rested into the pillows, her brown hair was stuck to her face and she was absolutely exhausted and a tiny baby was in her arms. He carefully sat down beside her and she opened her eyes to look up at Joseph, and Celina just smiled. "We have a boy," she said quietly.

He looked at her in total disbelief and then Joseph's eyes fell upon his newborn son and he simply stared in complete shock.

"Have you thought about a name?" Celina finally asked, laughing at her husband's reaction.

Joseph looked at Celina and laughed in disbelief, "Not so much, but we could always name him for your father and mine?"

"William Joseph Boxhall or Joseph William?" she asked quietly.

"William Joseph," Joe answered.

Celina looked down at their baby and nodded, "It suits him, and he seems like a William."

After that day, they had two more children, a girl named Elizabeth Miriam, and another boy named Edward Groves. The couple lived out their days in the home that his parents had bought for them and they always refused to speak of the Titanic disaster. Joseph retired in 1940 when he was fifty six years old and Celina had never been happier to finally have her husband home with her all of the time. That same year, their oldest son William came home to tell them he had enlisted and was going to be fighting in the war. Saying goodbye to their son was one of the hardest things Celina and Joseph had ever done.

During the height of the war, Celina was sitting in the parlor with Eleanor who was visiting for the afternoon. Eleanor had married at twenty to a young man from Hull whom she had met at school and they lived just down the street from Celina and Joe. There was a knock on the door that afternoon and Joseph stood to his feet to answer it, for Celina had taken to live in fear that it would be a message about their son. Elizabeth watched her father as he opened the door and frowned as her father stopped completely at the sight of whoever was on the other side of the door.

"Hello Joe," a voice greeted.

Celina stopped what she had been doing, listening to the voice of a ghost, and she carefully stood to her feet.

"What is it Lina?" Ella had asked, for she had been far too young to recognize the voice.

"Celina?" Joseph called.

She walked to the front door and joined her husband and there on the other side was Greta, whom the couple had not seen in nearly thirty years.

"Hi," Celina said, looking at her younger sister, her voice hoarse.

That was the beginning of it and for whatever reason, Greta finally decided she had been angry and bitter for long enough, and when she wanted back into Celina's life after apologizing, Celina welcomed her sister back into her life and a hole was filled in her life that Celina had never known was there.

Celina and Joseph's son returned from the war with a wound in the leg, but nothing more and Celina was grateful to that.

Joseph agreed in the late 1950s to be a technical adviser on "A Night to Remember," much to Celina and Ella's shock, but he told the men that if he was on set and his wife came with him, they were not to speak to her at all about the disaster. Celina only visited the set once when Joseph was working and while she attended the premiere with him and Herbert Pittman, she left before the film started. Celina just could not bear to see it on the big screen like that.

Harold Lowe was the first of the surviving Titanic officers to die. The Boxhall family traveled to Wales to his funeral and Celina said a few words at the ceremony about the man she knew and how he was a true hero. Lightoller's death in 1952 struck Celina the hardest because of the role he had played in both of their weddings, in New York and England and when Herbert died in 1961, despite Celina suffering from a bad back and Joseph's countless health issues, they went to his funeral as well. They both spoke fondly of how he had been responsible for Celina and Ella's safety that night and Celina said she was sure she would have never made it through the night if Herbert hadn't taken care of her in the lifeboat.

After Joseph retired, the Boxhall's were never separated after that, and when Joseph died in 1967, it struck Celina terribly. Joseph was cremated at Celina's request and that was the first time in fifty-five years that Celina stepped foot onto a ship. She carried her husband's ashes, accompanied by her sisters, children, and grandchildren, to the spot where Joseph had calculated the Titanic had gone down, and she scattered the ashes into the Atlantic, all while thinking about her father.

Celina lived for another eighteen years and she died at ninety-four; two months after Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic's resting spot. It was fifteen miles away from where her husband's ashes had been scattered, but despite that, when Celina died, her children took her ashes to the same spot where their father had been taken, and once again Celina was reunited with her husband, for after his retirement, they could not even be separated by death.

The End

A/N- Well…it's the end. I have toyed for the last few days what to do with this. I finally decided to write the last chapter like this because I knew how to do it. I did not write my epilogue though, like most of my usual epilogue's because I wanted to go into a few details on things for the sake of you, my dear readers.

I first started this story a few years ago and I never thought it would come to this point because I had given up for a while there on the plot. I lost my writing muse and it was the 100th anniversary of the sinking that gave me the real kick in the ass to get it done. I am so happy that this story had such a positive reaction and you all have just been so kind and great to me! Thank you for reading and reviewing! I love you and this isn't goodbye…I'm sure I'll pop up eventually!