YaYa's interest in Titanic

I hate to disappoint, but either AOL or my computer is acting funny and denying me access to a folder of pictures. So I'll put off the NKOTB post for a day - please, no tears - and keep mum about it until then.

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If you've known me awhile you know Titanic is one of my favorite movies of all time. Lisa and I saw it thirteen times in the theater, beginning on opening night.  I'm not afraid to admit I cried each and every time during certain scenes: the wide angle shot of the 1500 victims screaming in the water, Jack's death, seeing the Statue of Liberty as the Carpathia docks, and Rose's reunion with Jack in death.

I've held off watching the movie for years now because I wanted to preserve that emotional impact. But last week YaYa came up to us and began asking questions about the Titanic - the ship, not the movie. It's not hard to see where the interest came from as we have bookshelves devoted to texts on the White Star liner, including some gorgeous coffee table editions.

We let her take Robert Ballard's Discovery of the Titanic to school for show and tell and Wednesday after school she asked to watch the movie. We had some concerns about the content . There are boobies, as you know, although it isn't in a sexual context and YaYa's been in a locker room before. Obviously there's a lot of death, but we thought we'd play it by ear and perhaps cut off the movie as the ship began to make its final plunge.

In the end she sat spellbound and we let her watch it begriming to end. She asked some good questions, as did LuLu (who did not view the end) and two days later she invited a friend over to watch it again (with that Mom's full approval).

Did it hit me with the same impact? I didn't tear up for the Statue of Liberty, and Jack's death brought barely a trickle, but the reunion scene made me plain ol' bawl like a sissy.

"What the heck is it with you? You didn't cry when . ." Lisa said.

"Yeah, yeah, when the kids were born. Get over it already. I tear up at goofy things. I think that's been established," I said.

The first time I saw it I marveled at Cameron's deft at making us engage with the people on board, turning the dry historical event into something we felt a personal stake in.watching. I recognized that in his desire, his need, to show all of a ship physically divided by class he had to reach for a character on both ends of the spectrum. That combination automatically brings to life either a prince and the pauper or a Lady and the Tramp scenario, and of course he would choose the latter to increase our connection to the characters. He's got the treasure hunter out there as the Average Joe, full of knowledge about the ship but short on emotion for the loss of life so long ago. Future/past/youth/aged - it's got it all.

That said I also winced a little, even in '97, at some of Cameron's script. The class division was far more divisive and stereotypical than need be, painting the wealthy as cold and weak in character while the poor are honorable to the last and just darn good folk. The Picasso crack always stuck out to me like a sore thumb (by poking fun of Picasso we're supposed to think Cal is an idiot. We get it James.) and I still, after all this time, boggle over why Rose tossed the diamond overboard. Why Rose, why?

Upon review DiCaprio did a much better job than I remembered, handling the duty with  finesse and looking much more robust than I recall (in my memory he was a scrawny peach fuzzed kid. Not so.). Kate . . ah, well Kate's occupied a soft spot in my heart for a decade now. When she raised her face to the camera for the first time I literally gasped in the theater. It's odd seeing her use an American accent, but who cares - it's Kate.

At any rate, here's hoping there's another generation of Titanic buffs in the making at our house :)

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I believe I've mentioned my silly/crazy/whino belief that being remembered after death, in almost any positive or neutral capacity, no matter how small, is the equivalent of saying a prayer for that person's soul. 

But you can then understand why I was ecstatic to find the Encyclopedia Titanica. The site has biographies for evey crew member, survivor, and victim of the disaster. It goes so far as to list every passenger who disembarked when it stopped in France, crew members who deserted, failed to appear for duty, or were sent home for illness, and the poor souls who were sent in as substitutes to work the fatal voyage. There are dozens of names there of people who had the faintest brush with the ship and  lived on to be forgotten by history, only to have their names once again called out long after their own passing.

Here's an example from the victim's list.

Mr Mauritz Nils Martin Ådahl, 30, was born 15 June 1881 the son of Elna Ådahl and her husband. Ådahl had worked as a carpenter in Asarum, Blekinge, Sweden but moved to the USA in 1903. His fiancé Emelie came 1906 and they were married on 14 September 1907. A daughter, Vera, was born 1908 and a second child, Georgia, in 1910.

Emelie started to long for home and she returned to Sweden in 1911. Mauritz's father died in May 1911 and because his mother had difficulty in supporting herself Mauritz returned to Sweden that Christmas. A few months later he planned to return to America for a couple of years to earn some money. The family had bought a piece of land in Asarum and he was going to build a house.

Mauritz travelled with John Holm. On their way to Denmark they met Adelia Landergren from Karlshamn. None of them had originally planned to take the Titanic but due to the recent coal strike they were transferred. They boarded as third class passengers in Southampton. Nils held ticket # C 7076 for which the fare was £7 5s.

After the collision they helped Adelia up to the boat deck and shoved her into lifeboat 13, but the men did not follow.

Ådahl's body was later recovered by the MacKay Bennett (#72). On him they found his watch that had stopped at 2.34, 14 minutes after Titanic sunk. He was buried at sea 24 April 1912.

Check out the site if you have time and an interest. You won't be disappointed. It's fascinating.