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LONDON (AFP) – The last remaining survivor of the Titanic disaster is auctioning mementoes from the doomed liner to pay for her nursing home fees, a newspaper said Thursday.

Millvina Dean was only two months old when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in 1912, but now at the age of 96 she is struggling to make ends meet and hopes to make 3,000 pounds from the sale.

Personal items going under the hammer include a 100-year-old suitcase filled with clothes given to her family by the people of New York after they arrived there following the catastrophe.

Dean has lived in a nursing home for the last two years.

“I was hoping to be here for two weeks after breaking my hip but I developed an infection and have been here for two years. I am not able to live in my home any more,” she told the Southern Daily Echo newspaper.

“I am selling it all now because I have to pay these nursing home fees and am selling anything that I think might fetch some money,” she added. “The fees are quite expensive. The more money I can get from the auction the better.”

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CORNING, Calif. – The family of a dead elderly woman cremated her remains on a makeshift barbecue and continued collecting her retirement checks amounting to more than $25,000, authorities in Northern California said. Ramona Allmond’s daughter and grandson were arrested Sunday on suspicion of embezzlement, elder abuse and disposing of a body without a permit.

Allmond, 84, likely died of natural causes, though investigators were still trying to determine the exact cause of death, said Tehama County sheriff’s Capt. Paul Hosler.

Allmond’s daughter, Kathleen Allmond, 50, and Allmond’s grandson, Tony Ray, 30, told investigators their relative died in December. They left her body on her bedroom floor for a week before cremating the remains in their backyard fire pit, Hosler said.

Investigators said the two kept collecting Allmond’s monthly retirement checks, amounting to more than $25,000. Sheriff’s Detective Richard Knox said they may have been trying to honor Allmond’s desire to die at home and be cremated.

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