13 January 2024 , 00:32
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Christine Dawood became a widow and lost her child when the Titan submersible imploded in the height of a media spectacle this summer.
Since then, she's been fairly private. Along with her daughter, Alina, who was 17 when tragedy struck her family, she's taken refuge in her home, finding a new way to live. But now, she's given an interview - her first since husband Shahzada, and their precious son, Suleman, never came up from the water.
Christine recalls the moment they found out there were no survivors on Titan and said: "The moment we knew they'd found debris and there were no survivors, Alina and I went on deck. Until that moment we'd had hope. We took some cushions with us and just sat there looking out at the ocean. We were both crying."
In June, an hour and 45 minutes into their North Atlantic dive to see the Titanic wreck, the Titan lost contact with its support ship, the Polar Prince. Christine and her daughter, Alina, waited on that ship for four days for Shahzada, a businessman and philanthropist, and Suleman to resurface.
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Christine fondly remembered how they did everything togetherSadly, they never did. They died on their adventure along with three other crew members, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of Titan owner OceanGate. Christine Dawood is still in shock that her husband, Shahzada, and their son, Suleman, are gone. It's been seven months since she last saw them climb into the Titan submersible for what she calls 'the big one' of their family adventures.
She remembers telling her daughter: "I'm a widow now." To which Alina replied: "Yes, and I'm a single child." Then they cried even more. Christine fondly remembers how they did everything together, except for a few business trips when Shahzada would return to Pakistan.
"It's the waking up every morning that's . . . sometimes I still don't believe it. The possibility of it [Titan] imploding never crossed our minds. To lose a husband is terrible, but when you lose a child..." she said in an interview to the Daily Mail.
She described her son as an "old soul" and a "people's person who made everyone feel special." She said: "I love being a mother. I have Alina, but I never wanted to be a single mother to an only child. No parent should have to grieve for their child. It's unnatural. All of a sudden your purpose, your identity, is ripped away from you."
Five people died on board the sub (DAWOOD HERCULES CORPORATION/AFP)She said Monday would have been Suleman's 20th birthday and that she ordered some balloons because her son was 'always happy' when she bought them for him. This year she will fill them with helium and allow them to float up into the glass atrium roof."
She added that he was a "very affectionate son" who always returned his mother's kisses and that she often dreams about him and feels his hugs. She went on to reveal there are no graves because there were no bodies, before saying when she walks in the warm sea she feels she can connect with them 'because they are part of it.'
She said the family stood in the sea, skirts draped over their arms, crying for ten minutes. When she thinks of her son and husband, she imagines them just sleeping in the ocean.
Suleman was studying at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, planning to join his father's business, when they boarded the Polar Prince to visit the Titanic wreck. They had been planning this trip since before Covid.