Hello, friends, what does $50 mean to you personally? An opportunity to go to a good restaurant or brim your fuel tank? It might be hard to believe now, but even some 100 years ago, this amount was considered ordered. Incredible. What might be even more difficult to imagine is that it could have become the price of a sick child’s life.
What is the mother capable of doing to save her child? Having learned such terrible news, different thoughts come to mind when you think about it, but not the one that occurred to this unfortunate woman. She was ready to go to one of the most remote and harsh places on the planet for the sake of her son. Yes, friends, this story will be about a woman Robinson, and it’s different from the book because it happened for real several decades ago. Ada de Ludic was born in 1898 to an Inuit family.
In her childhood, she learned nothing about ABC books, writing, or even toothbrushes. Despite the ability to Hunt and shoot being so important for her people, the girl always tried to stay away from these things, being wary of weapons. Her mother wanted only the best for her daughter. So after the death of her husband, she took a desperate but seemingly right step and sent the little girl alone to the more progressive town called Gnome. In the missionary school, Ada finally learned reading, writing, ironing, and sewing, but most importantly, the English language.
She also got some basic understanding of money and American traditions, thus having turned into a more or less modern person. The girl no longer stood out among her peers, and even despite her incredulity, Ada married a guy named Jack Black Jack when she was 16 years old. The couple had three children, but only one of them was able to survive through infancy, and instead of sympathy and support through all the hardships, Ada’s husband suddenly decided to abandon the family, leaving the woman with only his last name, empty pockets, and the youngest son sick with tuberculosis. Finding herself back at the bottom of the social ladder, Ada clearly understood that now it would be very difficult to provide for the only person she cared about. Thus she had no choice but to send the boy to an orphanage, making a promise to little Bennett that she would definitely return for him and put an end to all their problems.
Returning to her old Shabby hut, the girl couldn’t even imagine how she was supposed to continue living with so many problems. But one day, a casual encounter changed everything. Returning home from work, she heard someone call her name. It was the head of the local police who was well aware of the problems in the poor girl’s family. Unexpectedly, the man told her that they were looking for an English speaking seamstress for an Arctic expedition.
He wanted to help her, and so he offered her to sail away with strangers God knows where. However, they offered a very good reward $50 a month. Ada did the math and realized that in just two years she could earn enough money to buy a new house and take Bennett back home. But as she learned more and more details about the job proposal, the poor mother couldn’t get rid of her doubts. Nevertheless, she agreed to go on the longest journey she had ever had.
The expedition to Wrangle Island, which is located in the Arctic Ocean 150 km from the nearest coast, was organized by villagers Steffensen. He had the ambitious goal of installing a weather station and settling down in that terribly cold corner of the world. Four young men were chosen for the trip. They had good theoretical knowledge, but no idea of what actually awaited them on the island. After all, they were driven by adventurism and the desire to become pioneers whose name would go down in history.
By the time of the ship’s departure, none of the inmates who were supposed to provide a comfortable stay showed up. Ada got even more worried, understanding that something was off. She even wanted to leave. But the team promised that they would pick up some locals at the Port on their way, and that convinced the woman to stay. Jumping a little ahead.
I will say that the girl’s worries were justified because no one agreed to go with them. And on the way to the island, she had endured more than one storm as well as seasickness, having unloaded a six month supply of provisions and an even more impressive Arsenal of weapons. At the final destination, the polar explorers said goodbye to the benefits of civilization. For a long time since then, the team’s day dragged on, one after another, while they were getting used to the new realities of their everyday life, the members of the exhibition began to explore the flora and fauna of the island, arrange Meteorological instruments, Hunt, and even build a house, while Ada’s task was to mend their clothes and prepare the food. Much to the woman’s horror, she encountered polar bears and wallersys often enough that even being so afraid of weapons, she had to convince herself that a gun was a necessity in those conditions.
In addition, the expedition was preparing for the next test, namely the polar night, which was to last for the next 60 days. The woman’s only friend was a cat named Victoria that she’d brought along from her hometown. Needless to say, the men were puzzled by the reaction of the seamstress. They simply couldn’t understand why she was so unhappy, because the team had everything from a hearty dinner to a warm shelter and table games to play. Finally, Ada resigned to the fact that $50 a month was worth her difficult work, and so she managed to survive through the winter and spring, eagerly awaiting the ship with supplies.
However, the members of the expedition couldn’t even imagine that their journey was just beginning. When the ship didn’t arrive in the summer, the explorers had to be more careful with the remaining provisions, because, as the head of the polar expedition, Lord Knight presumed, the ship got stuck on its way to them and it was no longer worth waiting for it. It meant only one thing. Their situation had just become way more serious. And ever since then, things went horribly wrong.
The Hunt was of little use. The motivation to work faded and night, as fate would have it, began to get joint pain and feel stiffness in his back, trying hard to chase away bad thoughts. The man then realized that he didn’t manage to avoid a terrible disease called scurvy, which meant that he should prepare for the worst. And it all might have been fine. But having lost all hope, the polar explorers decided to act independently and leaving part of the team behind, they deviated from the initial plan.
So in January 1 923, three of them decided to take a risky step to go 1200 km to the mainland to get help. Leaving Ada alone with the sick Lord Knight, the three team members went to the mainland, and no one has ever seen them again. Now the woman was forced to fulfill the duties of a woodcutter, Cook, nurse, and most importantly, a Hunter, which scared her so much. But even all this couldn’t save the sick Lord Knight. By that time, he could no longer swallow a piece of meat and took out all the anger of his own impotence on the innocent girl.
He kept saying that her ex husband had left her for a good reason. However, before his death, Knight did find the strength to admit that the woman had done everything she could to help him. And now she simply had no choice but to fight for her own life and her child. So one morning, Ada realized that Thorn had passed away. And this meant only one thing.
She was alone, God knows where, thousands of kilometers away from the nearest people. It’s difficult to imagine what that poor girl must have felt at that moment, and it was all happening to her. In reality, there was only endless snow all around her, the land where no man’s foot had ever stepped. But there also was a huge number of predators. Moreover, she had almost run out of supplies.
There was nothing left but a small handful of gunpowder. Realizing the gravity of the situation she was in, Ada rode up a will dividing her Arctic salary between her mother and her sister, whom she entrusted to take care of her son. Somewhere in her heart, she was still hoping that sooner or later people would come, but she could only guess how many years or even decades would pass. However, even despite the hopelessness of her situation, Ada refused to simply give up. Remembering that her sick son was waiting for her at home.