From a Titanic display at the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center -- Contributed

WEIRTON — Although the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center at 3149 Main St. is temporarily closed to the public due to concerns about containing the spread of coronavirus, the center has a Facebook page that offers insight on what “visitors” from their homes can discover is there.

That includes local connections to historic events, among them this month’s anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

The RMS Titanic sank in the early morning hours of April, 15, 1912, in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into the ship’s maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.

On that boat, notes Dennis Jones, the museum’s executive director, was a woman — recently wed — who would survive and come to live in Weirton just three years later.

Fast forward to April 21, 2012, and the museum hosted a packed house to hear a presentation about Titanic survivor Elin Hakkarainen Nummi, who lived in Weirton from 1915 to 1929.

The program was presented by Janet White, co-author of “I’m Going to See What Has Happened.”

The museum’s post earlier this month about that notes “The title of her book echoes the final words Elin heard from her husband, Pekka Hakkarainen, on that sad night of April 14, 1912.”

In addition to White’s presentation, Elin’s daughter-in-law, Jane Nummi, also spoke.

The center’s post notes: “Elin Matilda Dolck was born in Helsinki, Finland, on March 20, 1888, and first came to the United States in June 1907. She found work as a maid in Quincy, Mass., but soon became engaged to another Finn, Pekka Peitari Hakkarainen, a foreman in a steel mill in Monessen, Pa. The two were married in Finland on Jan. 15, 1912. In order for Pekka to escape conscription into the Russian Army, the newlyweds returned to the United States.

“While they initially intended to take the Mauretania back to America, they changed their plans and boarded the Titanic at Southampton, UK, with third-class passenger tickets (that is, the cabins below deck), which then cost just more than 15 British pounds.

“On the night the Titanic hit the iceberg, Elin reported that Pekka went out to investigate what had caused the noise and prolonged vibration, telling Elin, “I’m going to see what has happened,” which later became the title of a book co-authored by Janet A. White and Elin’s son, Gerald Emil Nummi. Pekka did not return, and Elin finally sought escape from the third-class cabin area, the gates to which were locked. Eventually freed by a ship steward, she looked for her husband on deck but was urged to get into a lifeboat, from which she nearly fell. Another passenger grabbed her hand and pulled her on board, ensuring her survival.

“Elin neither saw Pekka nor recovered his body,” the Facebook post continues. “She returned to New York on the Carpathia on April 18 and later received 50 British pounds as compensation for her loss. By 1915, Elin settled in Weirton, and on April 10, 1917, she remarried. She and her second husband, Emil Nummi, lived on Weirton’s Avenue I, where they had their only son Gerald in 1920.

“In 1929, the family moved to Warren, Ohio, where they lived for the remainder of Elin’s life. In the 1950s, she assisted Walter Lord with his book about the Titanic, titled ‘A Night to Remember,’ which was published in 1955. Elin succumbed to a stroke on Jan. 2, 1957, when she was just 68 years old. She is buried in Warren, Ohio’s Oakwood Cemetery.”

Jones also notes in the Facebook post that the center looks forward to “reopening and resuming our public programming in early May, after the quarantine has been lifted. Until then, please continue to follow us here to see more from our permanent collection and experience the Weirton Area Museum & Cultural Center from home.”