NP Rank:
Almost at ROCK BOTTOM......
She survived a horrific tragedy at such a young age, and now she's barely "surviving" trying to make ends meet....
LONDON (AP) -- Millvina Dean was only 2 months old when she was wrapped in a sack and lowered into a lifeboat from the doomed Titanic. Now 96, the last survivor of the tragic sinking is selling mementos of the disaster to help pay her nursing home fees.
Rescued from the bitterly cold Atlantic on that April 1912 night, Dean, her 2-year-old brother and her mother were taken to New York with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Before returning home to England, they were given a small wicker suitcase of donated clothing, a gift from New Yorkers to help them rebuild their lives.
Now, Dean is selling the suitcase and other Titanic mementos to help pay her nursing home fees. They are expected to go for $5,200 at an auction of Titanic memorabilia Saturday in Devizes in western England.
Among the items are rare prints of the Titanic and letters from the Titanic Relief Fund offering her mother one pound, seven shillings and sixpence a week in compensation.
Dean has lived at Woodlands Ridge, a private nursing home in the southern city of Southampton - Titanic's home port - since she broke her hip two years ago.
"I am not able to live in my home anymore," Dean was quoted as telling the Southern Daily Echo newspaper. "I am selling it all now because I have to pay these nursing home fees and am selling anything that I think might fetch some money."
Crowd Power
-
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States






Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 13:54 on October 16th, 2008
RayBanBro66, I like this story. It's good stuff.
So much for the UK's free universal healthcare, right?
at 13:56 on October 16th, 2008
This is such a tragedy, I shook my head as I was reading this
at 14:02 on October 16th, 2008
RayBanBro66, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 14:11 on October 16th, 2008
Thanx for GS flag Rhonda
at 14:11 on October 16th, 2008
....and I almost forgot... thanx for the flag
at 14:13 on October 16th, 2008
You are very welcome, RayBanBro66. Thanks for this story!
at 14:17 on October 16th, 2008
PS And she manages a smile in light of it all!
at 19:28 on October 16th, 2008
RayBanBro66, this is so sad - I can't even wrap my head around it.
at 00:54 on October 17th, 2008
Thanx for the flag Amy... hopefully somebody or some organization will give this lady a hand.