Sara, like most of the community, did not care for her Uncle, so she got out of Ireland as fast as she could. She immigrated to the United States, and like so many Irish women, went to work as a servant for a Protestant family that lived in up-state New York. After several years she met a canal and ditch digger named Cyrus MacDonald, and married him. She followed Cyrus from job to job using her skills as a laundress in the work camps. When Cyrus went to New Orleans to work on a new canal there, she followed him. Unfortunately, not long after their arrival Cyrus contracted Malaria. Sara spent two weeks tending to him until he finally died. Not long after Cyrus's death, Sara came down with Malaria and also died.