It is the end of an era. The last survivor of the R.M.S. Titanic with a personal memory of the event has died.

Lillian Gertrude Asplund was 99. She was five years old and a third class passenger aboard Titanic when she parted with her father and three brothers, including a fraternal twin, on the evening of April 14, 1912.

Like so many men aboard the R.M.S. Titanic, Lillian’s father and brothers died so that women and children would live.

Lillian survived the night, along with her mother and three-year-old baby brother, Felix. They were returning home to Worcester, Massachusetts, after a visit to Sweden.

Lillian’s mother, Selma Asplund, described the sinking of the Titanic:

“I could see the icebergs for a great distance around. . .It was cold and the little ones were cuddling close to one another and trying to keep from under the feet of the many excited people. . .My little girl, Lillie, accompanied me, and my husband said, ‘Go ahead, we will get into one of the other boats.’ He smiled as he said it.”

Selma Asplund died on the 52nd anniversary of the sinking in 1964 at age 91.

There are two remaining Titanic survivors, both living in England. Both were just infants when Titanic sank.

Vision Forum Ministries’ Christian Boys’ and Mens’ Titanic Society will continue to keep the memory alive of the night “when manhood perished not.” Three weeks ago, we met on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic to give thanks to God for His Son who died for the weak and to remember and raise the noble call of sacrificial, bold manhood. More than 200 fathers and sons attended.