How do you think that working on the Pulaski's curation and learning about the women who were on the ship affected Everly? Does learning about other people's stories help us to understand our own?

Everly has been through her own loss and tragedy, and her grief has impacted her ability to engage or "thrive" in life. How do you think that working on the Pulaski's curation and learning about the women who were on the ship affected her? Does learning about other people's stories help us to understand our own? Do you seek out stories that are similar to yours? Or that are different?

Learning about the women on the Pulaski was key in Everly's progression through her own loss. The acts of research and discovery of the potential connection between passengers on the Pulaski and her friend, Mora, filled her with a renewed energy and purpose. Each clue discovered brought enlightenment to her. The personal challenges of the ones who survived through determination, perseverance, and ingenuity opened her mind to the possible. This is the beauty of historical fiction. It brings to surface the tenacity and grit oftentimes required. Learning about other people's stories does offer opportunities to see ourselves from different perspectives. Whether a story is similar to mine, or not, is not important. It's more important to me to hear the story itself and maybe better understand mankind and relationships a little better each time.

I think learning about other’s lives not only opens our eyes and broadens our minds but sharpens our self-awareness and helps shape, or re-frame, our perspective of our own life. I think this is what happened with Everly. In the research and work on the Pulaski exhibit, she found a renewed direction and purpose, worked through her guilt and grief, and gained a new perspective of what it means to survive and live.

Given Everly's own grief over the loss of her dear friend at the time she became involved in curating the exhibit of the Pulaski shipwreck, I think the distraction of involving herself in the work to examine the remnants retrieved from the ship was helpful to her mental state and realizing the tragedies of the lives of the passengers lost at sea was healing for her.

I know she was curious about the women who were on the Pulaski, particularly Lilly and Augusta, but I'm not sure I ever felt like she correlated their survivor's guilt with her own. I do think that curating the exhibit and solving the mystery surrounding what happened to the women after the tragedy were healthy for her, though, and helped her move on.