Today I attended the funeral of the two little kids who were shot dead by their dad who then killed himself. It was horrific.
Manju, the bereaved mother, was broken. She sat close beside the coffin which stood open for people to pay their last respects. Her two-year-old daughter lay on one side, her three-year-old son on the other and her murdering husband in the middle. The three bodies lay snugly in the single coffin, covered by petals with only their sleeping faces peeping out.
I have never seen a mother in such an extreme state of anguish, distress and shock. She stroked her children's cheeks, smiled and kissed them at times - seemingly in her own world where they were happily alive. Then her face would change, shadows came down behind her eyes and she would cry out in unimagineable pain, at one stage begging for help and calling out to "my precious babies".
Relatives sobbed, one woman begged little Tamesha to open her eyes and wake up. It was horrific. Manju simply took hold of her children's hands - Yaden's little one peeping out from the cuff of his denim jacket, Tamesha's tiny one with it pearly-pink nails.
Then came time to close the coffin lid.
Manju gripped the wooden sides and screamed like she was being stabbed. I imagine that is exactly what it felt like for her.
She was physically unable to make it to the graveyard.
It hurts to think about what she is going through, to imagine what it will take for her to recover.
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What agony for that poor lady to have to go through and her parents on either side (I assume) being strong for her. What an insult that the father was in with the kids. I have been to funerals with the coffin present and it makes it much much harder for the bereaved to cope. Memorial services are much easier without the very real evidence of the lack of life in your loved one. My heartfelt condolences and sympathies to Manju and her family. The little ones are with God and nothing more can hurt them now.
ReplyDeleteI would be a vegetable. Totally.
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