The last Titanic Survivor, Rescued at the Age of Nine Weeks

At the tender age of 9 weeks, Millvina Dean had a brush with history that altered her life forever. Today, the 97-year-old Dean is the oldest living survivor of the Titanic.

Peter Jackson of BBC News has the story:

Millvina Dean was a babe in arms when her family boarded the Titanic. She remembers nothing of the journey, of her rescue, or of her father, who perished when it sank. But it’s an event that has shaped the 97-year-old’s life. [...]

Almost 100 years after it dipped below the waves of the Atlantic, the supposedly unsinkable ocean liner still exerts a powerful hold on our collective imagination. It was heralded as an engineering triumph, yet succumbed to the forces of nature on its maiden voyage. Among the 1,517 who perished were the rich, the poor, and those in between.

The fascination is such that recently an enthusiast wrote to her, offering £100 for a lock of hair. Even she – a veteran of the Titanic convention circuit since 1985 – is somewhat bemused.

“The girls chopped a bit of hair off and put some red ribbon around it and said: ‘that’s the last you’ll hear from him’,” she says, a smile spreading across her face.

“But he sent the cheque. I wrote back to say he’d restored my faith in people’s honesty.”

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by romreader.