Katie O’Callahan had the toothy countenance of a beaming Connemara pony, stomping and pawing at the ground beneath her feet. She smiled gleefully, walking toward the pier, taking the beginning steps of a new life far across the Atlantic. The dock was crowded with cargo boxes, food supplies, and luggage. Her fellow travelers swirled around her like corralled cattle, and she hugged her few belongings tightly, to avoid them being knocked out of her grip by the collision of arms, baggage, and bodies.

A small black-haired girl bumped into her leg. Looking down, Katie saw the fear in her eyes, backing up the child’s desperate cries for her “Mama.” Gently pulling the girl out of the rushing river of pre-boarding pilgrims, Katie knelt beside her and carefully brushed the matted hair from her face and wiped the tears off her rosy cheeks.

“W-w-where’s Ma-ma?” the child wailed.

“It’s okay, Love. Shhh . . . Shhh,” Katie responded, stroking her hair and rocking her in her arms. “We’ll find your mama right away.”

Setting down her bags, Katie picked her up and asked, “My name's Katie; what's yours?”

“Mo-Moi-Moira Dingham.”

“My, what a beautiful name!”

“I can’t find Ma-ma!”

“I know, Moira. That’s pretty scary. I remember when it happened to me.”

“You lost your mama, too?”

“Yup. But you know what?”

With two fingers stuck in her mouth, Moira shook her head, no.

“When I was lost, my mama was looking for me as hard as I was looking for her, so I know your mama must be close by.”

With these words, Moira began to look excitedly around to catch a glimpse of her mother. Katie joined the search, and—holding Moira’s hand—picked up her bag with her other free arm and began to walk through the crowd, calling out, “Mrs. Dingham! I’ve got your daughter!” Moira added her own voice to Katie’s and soon a haggard-looking young woman with frightened eyes broke through the throng of their fellow voyagers and rushed toward them.

With a joyful squeal, the youngster leapt into her mother’s arms. Katie smiled when she saw the tearful embrace of mother and daughter and felt a yearning in her heart to see her own mama once again. She could still feel her mother’s final hug before she succumbed to consumption a few years later.

Moira’s mother alternated between cuddles and kisses, scolding her young daughter for leaving her side, but thanking God that they were united again. Katie recalled the words her own father said to her just one day earlier:

“You’re being foolish! Your life is here!”

“What have we done to make you hate us so much that you have to run away?”

“You'll lament this day for the rest of your life.”

“When you come back, we won’t be waiting for you.”

With Moira safely in the arms of “Ma-ma,” Katie silently (and a little sadly) slipped back into the crowd and made her way to the gangplank of her ship. After handing over her ticket, she walked up the ramp and looked hopefully back at the crowd. Katie’s family was not to be seen, and her heart ached. She saw other aged withering fathers and mothers bidding their departing children goodbye, lovers in tearful embrace dreading their imminent separation, and whole families carrying their scant, dilapidated belongings—huddling together while above it all, a monotone speaker mundanely announced the voyage of their lifetimes.

Katie momentarily questioned her actions. Was her father right? Was she being a stubborn, unrealistic fool? The ship’s mighty horn blew, loudly. They would be embarking soon. She could still change her mind. What if she never saw her father or brothers again?

The shipyard workers removed the boarding ramp. She was still close enough to jump onto the dock. How would she survive without any family or friends in America? The massive ship began to back away from the dock.

As the water between the ship and land expanded, she heard a scared little girl’s voice inside her head yelling, “Jump! Jump!” The ship moved farther and farther away from her homeland; the voice inside her head whimpered in panic, desperately pleading for her to swim back to shore or to maybe take a lifeboat back. Yet, Katie knew it was too late (or about time). She had committed to forging a new life for herself, in finding a new home somewhere “out there.”

Once outside the harbor, Katie wrenched her eyes away from the shoreline and made her way to the bow of the vessel before finding her berth. She felt the ship’s giant engines roar to life, and they picked up steam, moving faster than she had ever traveled before in life. The salty wind in her face seemed to blow away any lingering feelings of sadness or loneliness in her heart; instead, Katie felt as though a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Moira and her mother came up beside her and all three gazed out together into the distance. Katie smiled at Moira and the little girl shyly hid her face in her mother’s coat. Her mother pointed to the skyline and said, “Out there, Honey. Can you see it?”

Moira painstakingly gazed out over the deep ocean waters and shook her head. “I don't see it yet, Ma-ma. Where is it?” Her mother pulled her close and said, “It’s there, Moira. I promise you it is.”

The ocean breezes blew Katie's red hair lazily around her face, tickling her nose. Brushing the strands back, she smiled from deep inside. The fears that had previously gripped her so fiercely were now just bad dreams easily forgotten. Although Katie trembled, it was not from a troubled soul; rather, she felt the thrill of what was to come in the weeks to follow.

Katie only wished the ship would go faster. She also wished she could just jump overboard and skip across the ocean waters to the New World. Facing her future, majestic westward skies greeted her, and the Atlantic seemed to be like a huge, azure, velvet track beckoning her to gallop onward into the western sun.