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 On May 6th, 2006, Gertrud Asplund, the last survivor of the Titanic died of natural causes. She was 99 years old. Lilian Gertrud Asplund was born on October 21, 1906 in Worcester, Massachusetts one of a set of fraternal twins. 

Gertrud was five years old when she and her parents, Charles and Selma, and her
siblings, nine year old Clarence, 13 year
old Filip, fraternal twin brother, five year old Carl Edgar and her three year old brother Felix, were sailing on the Titanic.

Gertrud, her mother and brother Felix were 
the only three to survive. Both her mother and younger brother died before her.

Gertrud, Selma and Felix Asplund 
in 1912.
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Lillian Gertrud Asplund
1912
Gertrud rarely spoke about Titanic since her mother had always told her that it was bad luck to do so.  On the rare occasions she had spoken about it, she recalled seeing her father standing on the ship and recalls watching the ship slip down under the water. She was that last living person who actually remembered seeing this happen. Gertrud also spoke of being passed through something she described as a window, which later was found to be the first class promenade deck. She was pass through the windwo and being put into a life boat. She was taken into lifeboard 15 with her mother and brother. 
Memories of the faces of her brothers and her father peering over the side of the ship, haunted her for almost her entire life. Remembering her father holding her twin and her two brothers standing on each side of him, never left her.

After they were rescued, they were taken to St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. After returing to Worcester, they took up residence with Gertrud's Aunt and Uncle. Having lost everything in the sinking of the Titanic, the city of Worcester held a fund raiser to benefit her family. With almost $2,000. being raised and invested, they were to receive proceeds from the interest as often as they needed it. In 1951, Gertrud and her family moved to Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

Gertruds mother passed away on the 52nd anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. At the age of 73, only 18 days away from his 74th birthday, her brother Felix died. Gertrud never married or had any children.


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