The elderly Couple who lie on the bed awaiting death as water floods the room is based on the real-life couple Ida and Isidor Strauss, the owners of Macy’s who died on the RMS Titanic.
Ida was offered a seat on a lifeboat but refused so that she could stay with her husband, saying, “As we have lived together, so we shall die together.” There was a scene filmed that depicted this moment but was cut from the final version.(source)