We were more drawn to walks in the Smoky Mountains than tourist attractions. However, we were glad to visit the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge. Upon entry, we were assigned boarding passes with the identities of historic Titanic passengers. I was 16-year-old Harry Sadowitz, a Jewish tradesman who made fur coats, taking third class passage to follow my father who had immigrated to America. Marcia was Amalie Gieger, a 35-year-old Prussian immigrant and personal maid to the wife of “Pennsylvania’s richest” George Widener, traveling first class on the luxury ship. This was interesting because John Borland Thayer and his wife Marian, had just returned to their cabin after dinner with the Wideners when the Titanic struck the iceberg. I (Harry) did not survive the voyage. Nor did John Thayer. Marcia (as Amalie) survived, as did Marian Thayer and her son Jack.
It must have been amazing. It was implied that even the 14 young people who had fled poverty in the poor county of Addergole, Ireland, would have found third class steerage on the Titanic to be luxurious in comparison to their homeland life. In fact, all 2,224 Titanic passengers were likely bathed in some degree of lavish luxury for four days, before being sent into the icy Atlantic waters. Only 710 survived. As my boarding pass stated, “There were no passenger favorites when Titanic went under. Rich and poor were tossed together in a struggle for survival – some in fur, some in cheap woolens, but all in the hands of God.”
The museum creators recreated the famous Grand Staircase true to the original blueprints. Before ascending them, we were greeted by a man dressed in character as Titanic third class passenger Austin van Billiard. He told how he had discovered diamonds in Africa and had sewn these ‘most prized possessions’ into the lining of his coat. With plans to become a diamond merchant in America, he went ahead on the voyage with his two oldest boys, hoping to bring the rest of his family over later. With poetic license, van Billiard told of trying to convince his two boys to get on the lifeboat as the disaster struck, but they would not leave their father’s side. In the end, he concluded he had prized his diamonds above all, realizing too late that his family was his very most valued ‘possession.’ He and his sons all perished.
Whatever degree of luxury you live in today – and it is lavish compared with most in the world – we enjoy it for just a short voyage. Whatever ambitions and hopes you have for this present voyage, they will soon come to an end. This might seem like a somber reflection, but consider it a joyful reminder to celebrate the life we have this very day. Live it fully and intentionally on purpose, remaining faithful to the specific call God himself has placed upon you.
