Miss Jamila ("Amelia Garrett") Nicola-Yarred

Miss Jamila Nicola-Yarred, 14, from Hakoor, Lebanon was travelling with her brother Elias to Jacksonville, Florida to meet their father. Part of the family already lived in the United States while some of the siblings remained in Lebanon.

They boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as third class passengers.

On the night of the sinking Jamila and her brother had gone to bed. After feeling a bump she became concerned about noises she was hearing outside their cabin and asked her brother to investigate. He was at first disinterested but Jamila was insistent and so the two children left their cabin and followed others to the Boat Deck. On deck she remembered the $500 given to her by her father for the trip, they headed back down to the cabin but found that water was filling the passageway and prevented her from opening the door. They returned to deck where they were allowed into (probably) collapsible C.

Jamila were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia by their uncle immediately following the Titanic disaster. They stayed with their uncle in Nova Scotia until their father was able to get them after he sailed from France about a month later. The family then relocated to Jacksonville, Florida and their names were anglicized - Elias became Louis Nicholas Garrett and Jamila became Amelia Garrett.

At the age of just 16 Amelia married Isaac A. Isaac (died 1942) they had seven children.

In 1953 she attended a screening of the Clifton Webb movie Titanic held in her honour at the Florida theatre.

She died 8 March, 1970 and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville on 10 March 1970. Her last remaining sibling Isaac died in March 1985 in Jacksonville at the age of 91.

Notes
The date of birth on her Social Security death record state she was born April 15, 1895 but in other articles her brother stated that on the day the Titanic sank, his sister was planning to celebrate her 14th birthday, which would make her born in 1898--that is the most likely date.
Some place the pair in lifeboat 4 but Jamilia Nicola Yarred describes her boat as scraping against the side of the ship on it's way down.

References
State of Florida - Certificate of Death (#70-017885)
Times Union (Jacksonville, Florida) Sisters had Titanic link in mother. 20 January 1998
Unknown Newspaper Obituary

Acknowledgements
Michael A. Findlay, USA
Phillip Gowan, USA
Victor Hugo Ossio Villalba, USA
Roland Frisch, USA
Frances Taber, USA

Related Articles and Documents

	Awake  (1981)	I SURVIVED THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC
	(1982)	LOUIS GARRETT'S TESTIMONY
	Réveillez-vous!  (1982)	LOUIS GARRETT (ELIAS NICOLA-YARRED)