Anna Sofia Nysten

Anna Sofia Nysten was a passenger on *Titanic*.

## Early life

Anna Sofia Nysten was born on January 22 1890 in Hag, Västra Östergötland, Sweden.

She was the child of Samuel Augsut Nysten and Maria Sofia Nilsdotter. Her father was a farmer. She had many siblings, some half-brothers and half-sisters, as her father was in a second marriage, and at least two younger brothers, two older brothers and an older sister.

In the 1900s, her sister Elsa had traveled from Gothenburg to New York to settle in America.

On March 29, 1912, Anna left home and traveled from her family at Farsbo farm in Kisa and according to some reports was on her way to her sister in Passaic, New Jersey, according to others to a prospective employer in Hackensack, New Jersey, where she would work as a maid.

During the journey, she was acquainted with the Danbom and Andersson families, who lived in the same area, and it was Ernst Danbom who persuaded her to accompany them when they returned to America after a long visit to their homeland in Sweden. The party departed from the port of Gothenburg for England on April 5 according to the register kept by the harbor police. The traveling party experienced a storm during the crossing to England. Mrs. Danbom wrote about it in a letter she sent home on April 9.

## ***Titanic***

She left the Southampton docks on April 10 aboard *Titanic* with the two families. She had a ticket for Third Class passage. She was 22 years old at the time.

On April 14, the ship had struck an iceberg and was in danger. Anna had not fallen asleep yet when she was alerted to a sound what she described as an automobile’s underside scratching the ground when it was driven on a road full of potholes.

Nevertheless she dressed, didn’t panic and made sure she had enough supplies of food and clothes with her, which she carried in a basket.

On April 15, with *Titanic* sinking rapidly at the late hour, she found her way into lifeboat 13 and thus she was saved. The entire families of Danbom and Andersson sadly lost their lives in the disaster however.

## **After the disaster**

On *Carpathia*, she was treated very kindly and to her surprise she found herself in a First Class cabin. In New York she received $25 from The Women's Relief Committee. Her basket had become a valuable souvenir and she didn’t want to sell it even though $100 was proposed. At some point the item was stolen.  Another Swedish *Titanic* survivor, Hilda Hellström, spoke with her, and they became friends. They would later write to eachother, this continuted till Helda’s death in 1962.

She would write a lettter to her parents, saying how awful it was, and describing the screams of those that had suffered in the water.

## **Later life**

Anna remained in New York until 1915. She had reportedly been saving enough money to return home to Sweden, but she had second thoughts after hearing about the *Lusitania* disaster. That year, she moved to Iowa. She shortly lived in Boone County before she settled in Des Moines, Iowa.

She became the wife of Frans Otto Arvid Gustafsson. They married 20 Oct 1917 in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States. They had 4 children:   Arvid Harry Gustafson, born on 10 November 1920,  William Gustafsson, born on  and Arthur Gustafson.  Sadly Arvid didn’t make it to the age of 4.

For a while, the tragedy of *Titanic* had affected her and gave her plaguing nightmares, but she had learnt to deal with them later, till it was no problem anymore. Anna worked for many years as a cook at Grand View College and was a member of the First Lutheran Church in Des Moines.

In 1946 her marriage came crashing down, her husband of cruelty, negligence and having a drinking problem, but he said she was abusive.

In 1953 she went on another sea voyage, but a sudden standstill of the ship had given her a panic attack due to the traumas from *Titanic* that had lingered. That same year, she watched the movie ‘Titanic’ but it proved too much for her.

In the 1960s she reached out to see if other Swedish *Titanic* survivors would want to come into contact with her. Gunnar Isidor Tenglin was the only one that showed interest.

In 1969 when she moved to the Lutheran Home for the Aged in Des Moines.

Anna passed away on the 27th of March, 1977 at the age of 87. She was laid to rest at the Resthaven Cemetery in West Des Moines.