A Young Survivor’s Strength: Ruth Becker and the Titanic’s Lasting Impact
She was born on the 28th of October 1899 in Guntur, in British India, where her parents were serving as missionaries. When she was young, she was able to travel, but she was also influenced by faith, and she sadly experienced the loss of a sibling. In 1912, her baby brother became seriously ill, and her mother made the difficult decision to take the children to America for treatment. Her husband stayed behind in India.
On the 10th of April 1912, Ruth boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second-class passenger. She was only twelve years old at the time. She later remembered that the ship was comfortable and that it felt like a floating hotel.
On the 14th of April, the ship struck an iceberg and fear and confusion soon began to spread. Ruth and her family made their way to the deck. In the chaos, she became separated from her mother and siblings, she must have been terrified.
An officer placed her into Lifeboat 13, at the time she did not know if she would see her family again. In the lifeboat, she tried to help the others, sharing blankets and even comforting a distressed mother. This shows a remarkable strength beyond her years.
After being rescued by the Carpathia, she was thankfully reunited with her family. Can you imagine the relief she must have felt, seeing her mother and siblings again after such a traumatic separation.
She became a teacher and she rarely spoke about the disaster until much later in life. Perhaps the memories were hard to find the words for. When she died in 1990 at the age of 90, her ashes were scattered at sea above the wreck site.
Do you think surviving something like that at such a young age would change how you see the world for the rest of your life?
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