On January 24, 2010 – I turned 38. For my birthday present, Julie took me to Titanic: The Artifact Experience – and it was a birthday I will never forget.

I have always been obsessed with that ship. Call me crazy – but in a past life (if that is true or even possible) – I would swear I was on that ship and do not know whether I survived or not. I can rattle off information about that ship like no other. For example, Titanic’s main anchor had a mass of 15.5 tons and it took 20 horses to haul it through the streets of Belfast – coupled with her other two massive anchors – the three together weighed a total of 31 tons. Believe me – I know the ins and outs of that ship. So when I heard of this exhibit – I wanted nothing more than to attend it – because I felt there was no other way to celebrate the day of my birth.

When we got there, we paid our fee – and received a boarding pass with the identity of a passenger. I was Master Edmond Roger Navaratil – a two-year-old boy from Nice, France. “My” family was traveling under the assumed name of “Hoffman” – because my father had stolen myself and my brother from his estranged wife. I was a second class passenger. The good news is that it turns out that “I” made it – but I can’t imagine under what circumstances.

The exhibit itself was so moving – it actually brought me to tears. From pieces of the ship, to people’s clothing and personal belongings – to an exact, life-size replica of the vessel’s Grand Staircase – I was transported to the deck of that ship – and imagined myself as that two-year-old boy running down that ship from bow to stern, which must have been as big as a city to him.

One of the artifacts they had was one of the cranes that lowered the lifeboats that saved only 706 people out of 2,223. It had a sign on it that said, “Please do not touch…”

…screw that.

As I placed my hand on this object that was once aboard the largest object ever made by man – and a part of a ship I have been obsessed with for decades – I started to cry – because it was as if I felt the horror of what was happening when this ship began to be swallowed by the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean 98 years ago. I could hear the screams of the passengers as they realized that this might be the day that they die. I could feel the emotion of those on the lifeboats as they watched the final piece of Titanic slide into the ocean…

…and I wonder what Master Edmond Roger Navaratil thought – at such a young age – as he watched this horrible tragedy happen.

Last year, the last living surviving passenger on the Titanic, Millvina Dean, passed away at the age of 97. With the hopes of her family becoming U.S. citizens, she – a third class passenger – once said, “If it hadn’t been for the ship going down, I’d be an American.” So with the passing of Millvina Dean – no one is left to tell the tale of what took place that fateful night.

I may never set foot on the Titanic itself – but this was close enough.