“I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together.”
Isidor Straus was co-owner of Macy’s Department Store. Ida Straus was a homemaker and his wife. Married for more than forty years, they were known for their shared love, almost always together and writing daily to each other when apart.
On April 14th, 1912, they were passengers on the Titanic. As the ship began to sink, Ida alone was offered a seat in a lifeboat. She refused. “We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go,” Ida said to her husband.
The two were then offered a seat together in another lifeboat. But with many women and children still on the Titanic, Isidor refused to take the seat. Once again, his wife refused a seat as well.
Passengers remarked that what they saw was a “most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion.”
The couple was last seen sitting side by side on Titanic’s Boat Deck.
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“The love of Isidor and Ida Straus” sources: Photograph taken circa 1910, Straus Historical Society / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidor_Straus / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Straus
Note: This story was updated on February 14th, 2021.
