Widow, Mother of Titan Submersible Victims Announces Memoir: ‘More to Them Than the Headlines’

Nearly three years after the Titan submersible implosion claimed the lives of her husband and teenage son, Christine Dawood is preparing to tell the story behind the headlines.

Christine has written Ninety-Six Hours, a memoir chronicling the hours she and her daughter, Alina Dawood, spent waiting for news after the Titan submersible — which her husband Shahzada Dawood and son Suleman Dawood were aboard — lost communication with its surface support ship in June 2023 and imploded, killing all passengers instantly.

In an interview with People, Christine, 51, said the book is not only about the tragedy unfolding. It is also an effort to preserve the memory of the husband and son she knew away from the worldwide coverage surrounding their deaths.

“There is more to them than the headlines,” she said.

Christine, a psychologist based in London, described the memoir as a “love story, a love letter almost” to her deceased husband and son, who were 43 and 19 at the time of their deaths.

Her relationship with Shahzada began at the Reutlingen University in Germany, where the two both studied.

“I fell in love with him even though I only understood half of what he said,” the Bavaria native recalled. “I walked around with my dictionary, and we started to talk.”

They married two years later. In 2004, they welcomed Suleman and eventually settled down in England.

For the Dawood family, the fascination with the Titanic had been part of their lives for years. In 2012, an exhibit inspired the family to travel to Singapore. Christine said the experience “made a huge impression” on her son. So when an opportunity arose to travel aboard an OceanGate submersible to the Titanic wreck, “they jumped” at the opportunity, People reported.

Christine said OceanGate “were really convincing,” and she saw no indication at the time of the company’s shortcuts. She also felt reassured by the presence of P.H. Nargeolet, the famed French explorer, who was among the five people aboard the Titan who died in the implosion.

As the family waited for word from the submersible, Christine said the most difficult part was imagining what Shahzada and Suleman might be experiencing during the 96 hours of oxygen supply they were believed to have left.

“Are they panicking, are they scared?” Christine recalled worrying.

Then, on June 18, 2023, came the news that the Titan had imploded.

Christine said she felt “grateful they didn’t suffer.”

“They were happy one moment, and the next they were gone,” she said.

In the aftermath, Christine began documenting her grief. Her memoir draws from journals and recordings she made during long walks following the deaths of her husband and son. She also undertook a 400-mile trek to Glasgow, where Suleman had attended the University of Strathclyde.

The ocean, meanwhile, remains a place where Christine feels connected to her husband and son.

“Every time I am near the ocean I say hello to them,” she said.

Beyond her memoir, the psychologist hopes to establish a grief and trauma center in the United Kingdom called Pathway of Light. A foundation will also be created in Shahzada’s and Suleman’s names.

For Christine, the goal is not to leave her husband and son behind, but to carry their memory into the next stage of her life.

“I am not fond of the phrase ‘moving on.’ I just want to move forward,” she concluded. “I’m looking to that new chapter because they would have wanted to help others.”