MILLVINA DEAN
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1 | | | I can't bear ice in my drinks - it always | | | | | father went down with the Titanic. My |
| | | makes me think of the iceberg, you see. | | | | | mother, brother and I came back to |
| | | There are only five Titanic survivors I | | | 35 | | Southampton. I worked as a cartographer, a |
| | | left. I'm the youngest, as I was only nine | | | | | secretary and even as an assistant in a |
| 5 | | weeks old when it sank in 1912, - so, | | | | | tobacconist's - I felt my father would have |
| | | obviously, I can't remember anything about | | | | | approved. |
| | | it. But my poor father drowned that day and | | 5 | | | But I had hardly given any thought to the |
| | | whenever I imagine an iceberg, I think of | | | 40 | | Titanic when, in 1988, I was invited to |
| | | him. | | | | | attend a convention in Boston, and since |
2 | 10 | | Up to a few years ago I was living quietly | | | | | then I haven't stopped. I've been to so many |
| | | in retirement, but now much of my time is | | | | | places I would never otherwise have gone to, |
| | | spent travelling all over the world to speak at | | | | | and wherever I go people make a terrific fuss |
| | | conventions as a guest of the various Titanic | | | 45 | | of me. I have been on several wonderful |
| | | societies. Until the wreck was discovered | | | | | cruises and have given a talk on the Queen |
| 15 | | there wasn't nearly so much interest in the | | | | | Elizabeth II. I have been given a civic |
| | | disaster. My mother, who died in 1975, | | | | | reception in Cobh, Ireland, where the Titanic |
| | | didn't tell me what we had been through | | | | | docked before setting off to America. I have |
| | | until I was eight. | | | 50 | | even had a road named after me. And there |
3 | | | My whole family - my father Bertram, my | | | | | are always dozens of letters from all over the |
| 20 | | mother Georgetta and my 18-month-old | | | | | world. People just address them to Millvina |
| | | brother, Bertram Vere - was on that maiden | | | | | Dean, Titanic survivor, Southampton - but |
| | | voyage of the Titanic. We were going to start | | | | | nevertheless they all arrive. |
| | | a wonderful new life in America, where my | | 6 | 55 | | I'm staying at home this Christmas, but I'd |
| | | father had planned to open a tobacconist's | | | | | rather not watch the Titanic film. It would be |
| 25 | | shop. I'm convinced he was a hero and that | | | | | too upsetting. When panic sets in at the end I |
| | | his quick response saved us. | | | | | would be wondering about my father. But I |
4 | | | That night we were woken by a loud crash | | | | | have been invited to meet Kate Winslet and |
| | | and father immediately told my mother to go | | | 60 | | the director, James Cameron, and I have seen |
| | | to the lifeboats with the children. He kissed | | | | | the Leonardo DiCaprio look-alike at |
| 30 | | her goodbye and said he would see her later | | | | | conventions. He was very handsome! |
| | | - but she never saw him again. We were | | | | | |
| | | picked up by the Carpathia, but my dear | | | | | 'Radio Times' |