The Last Survivor

Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic sinking [famous ship that sank back in 1912 in a large body of water somewhere], died Sunday in London at the age of 97.

She was only nine weeks old when the famous ship, well-known from both legend and lore, went down. That's of course not old enough to remember much about the well-publicized incident.

With Millvina's death also goes the last hope of a personal joke I had in the '70s, which would involve me meeting a Titanic survivor, then speaking through an interpreter to say, slowly, "Tell her I have heard of the Titanic."

Since then there's been a raft of references to it (no pun intended) in encyclopedias, online sites, and movies.

My own prediction is a simple one, and I'm thinking prescient, that the Titanic's legend will only multiply as time lingers on.