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February 19, 2013

Room on the high road

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — We saw lots of hand-wringing from passengers on the Carnival Triumph cruise ship that was marooned in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine fire this past week.

The first lawsuit was filed about the time the ship was towed into Mobile Bay on Thursday evening. Many passengers expressed their frustrations in television interviews.

What we didn’t hear a lot of was the positive attitude expressed by a Norman couple on the cruise for their 20th wedding anniversary. Keith and Carmella Morren decided early on to keep an upbeat attitude, no matter what happened.

In an interview with The Transcript’s Doug Hill, they gave the crew high marks. They had food and water. Toilets were a problem.

“It was difficult, but you know what? We’re Christians,” Mr. Morren said. “There were so many negative attitudes around and we were just determined not to be like that. We heard so much negative from others and certainly didn’t want to contribute to it.”

Instead of dwelling on the problems, they joined in a Bible study, helped those who needed it and made lasting friendships with other passengers.

It’s kind of refreshing to see our neighbors take the high road. There’s usually plenty of room up there.

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