On May 7, 1915, tragedy struck when the Germans torpedoed the British passenger ship, the Lusitania. Unfortunately, 128 Americans were killed as a result of this heinous attack. However, there were a few survivors of this attack. One of them was Rosalie Altamore Bonsignore, who recently visited Carey High School.

When Brooke Weingarten, an eighth-grader, heard her teacher Mrs. Di Maria discuss the Lusitania, she raised her hand. She then proceeded to inform Mrs. Di Maria that her great-grandmother is a living survivor of the Lusitania. At that point, Mrs. Di Maria asked if Brooke's great-grandmother would be able to visit Carey. Brooke said she would love to especially since she has appeared on News 12 and other media outlets before.

As Brooke predicted, Mrs. Bonsignore came up to Carey quite willingly. She spoke to the eighth-grade advanced social studies class and Mr. Frino's AP US History class. Although excited about the assembly, the students did not quite know what to expect from listening to Mrs. Bonsignore's horrific tale.

Mrs. Bonsignore provided them with an awe-aspiring look into this tragedy along with the ramifications it had on her life. Not only did she talk about the event itself, she also described what she remembered hearing right before the ship was sunk. She vividly described hearing the sound of the torpedo. She fondly spoke of the German gentleman who saved her life and how she corresponded with him through the years. She mentioned how her mother survived initially but suffered a heart attack, which ended her life a couple of days later.

The heartache continued for Mrs. Bonsignore even though she survived. She was not able to return to the United States and reunite with her father for almost a decade. After explaining the events, Mrs. Bonsignore took questions from the students. The whole assembly helped the students to get a more personal account of an historical event as opposed to just knowing the facts.