THE BOOK
Flower in the River
FLOWER IN THE RIVER
Flower in the River is a work of historical fiction based on the Eastland Disaster, telling the story of the death of Natalie Zett’s great aunt, Martha Pfeiffer.
It interweaves the past and present of four generations of an Eastern-European immigrant family, and shows how even an unknown trauma can affect a family for generations.
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MEDIA APPEARANCES
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Coast to Coast AM with George Noory
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The Other Side with Jim Harold
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strange planet with richard syrett
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Andy De Codes
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Fill to capacity with Pat Benincasa
HOW IT BEGAN
Around 1997, Natalie’s mother’s sister, Pearl Donovan Cerny, starting writing the family history. Pearl said, “It started as a simple family story, but I kept remembering more people and more stories. I’m still baffled as to how I managed to write 38 pages in one sitting.”
Pearl used an old Smith-Corona typewriter to bang out the names, demographic information, and tales of her family.
Pearl Donovan Cerny, abt. 1936, Chicago, IL
A former journalist, Pearl hadn’t written for publication in over 60 years. Still, she did an incredible job and included everything she remembered.
She ensured that her descendants, knew where - and from whom - they came.
Once she finished writing, she couldn’t figure out what to do with the manuscript. What would happen to it after she died?
There were no responses from her immediate family members after she sent it out.
Out of desperation, she forwarded the manuscript to her niece, Natalie, a freelance journalist.
Buried in the document were a few paragraphs about “the Eastland Disaster” and someone called Martha Pfeiffer.
“What??” “Who??” Natalie kept asking.
She knew nothing of this event or this person, yet she quickly became captivated by the narrative and has never let it go.
“One of the main characters in Flower in the River is not a person, but a tragedy. The ripples from the Eastland Disaster of 1915 flowed through my family’s life for over 100 years.
Flower in the River is my reply to the tragedy.”
- NATALIE ZETT
Around 1999, a postcard collector uploaded numerous Great Lakes shipwreck photos on her website. Among the images were those of the Eastland before and after the tragedy.
The shock waves from looking at those images shot straight to - and through - Natalie’s heart. “One of my family perished on that beast of a ship! How could that be?”
Those photos launched her quest to understand everything she could about this forgotten tragedy and her equally forgotten family.
