She survived for years.

The people with her died.

She was rescued and came home.

This is not ordinary.

This is not the kind of thing that most people, in any era, could do.

The fact that she did it — that she found, within herself and in her environment, what she needed to survive — is the most remarkable thing about her story.

And the fact that we know about it at all — that the story survived the same kind of historical forces that erased so many women’s experiences — is remarkable in its own way.

Marguerite de la Rocque survived the island.