Millvina Dean was only 9 weeks old when she, along with her mother and brother, survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Until she passed away in her sleep on Sunday at age 97, Dean was the last remaining survivor of the historic and tragic ship that hit an iceberg and went down in the Atlantic on her maiden voyage.

Millvina and 706 others—mostly women and children—survived, but her father and 1,517 others died.

The AP story brings out the heroism of her father who “felt the ship scrape the iceberg and hustled the family out of its third-class quarters and toward the lifeboat that would take them to safety.”

I enjoyed reading this story and thinking through the distinctly Christian vision of sacrificial manhood that must have beat in the hearts of many of the men who went down with the Titanic. Such men put women and children—both family members and strangers—on lifeboats, forfeiting their own chance of survival.

Millvina was one such child, and she lived 97 years as a result of such sacrificial heroism.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).