 |
| Family lost seven on AirAsia Flight 8501 |
It is impossible to measure a family's grief after a
disaster like the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. And for one family, they're
grappling with the loss of seven loved ones on the aircraft. Two of their family members have been found so far. A
total of 37 bodies have been recovered out of 162 passengers and crew members
on board the AirAsia flight.
We were invited to a Surabaya funeral home where the
family held a visitation for The Meiji Tedjakusuma and her daughter, Stevie
Gunaman. Stevie had just turned 10, two weeks before the flight.
The two were on their way to a New Year's trip in
Singapore with five other members of their family, including Stevie's father,
grandmother, brother, sister, and her sister's fiancee. The remaining five have
not been found yet.
"I am devastated," said Suyono Tedjakusuma,
a relative of the victims. "And now, the waiting for the rest of the
family is so difficult.
While the funerals for The Meiji and her daughter
will take place on Friday, friends and families gathered this week to pay their
respects to the mother and her young child
In a Buddhist ceremony, friends and family members
lit candles on an altar and bowed in front of the two caskets. They also folded
paper into what resembled money as part of a Buddhist tradition of burning
"money" to symbolically provide for their loved ones in the
afterlife.
Earlier last week, they continued to hold out hope
that some or all of their family members might have survived the crash. But
with the discovery of mother and daughter's bodies, the hope for a miracle has
all but disappeared.
While they mourn and plan a funeral, they still have
to monitor the news and wait for any word about their five other loved ones.
The Meiji was going to spend her 46th birthday in
Singapore. Instead, her birthday was the day her body was found.
No comments:
Post a Comment