Wednesday January 28, 2009
Widow in shock after all her children drown during outing
KOTA TINGGI: Five years ago, she became a single mother when her husband died of a heart attack. On Sunday, V. Letchumy lost her entire family when all four of her children drowned.
The 52-year-old was inconsolable over the death of her children S. Netthiah, 17, Prasanah, 16, Gopi, 14 and Ganeswaran, 10, during the funeral on Monday.
Letchumy’s younger brother, taxi driver Rajendran, 47, said the deaths were hard for the family to accept.
Shattered: Relatives and friends trying to console Letchumy at the funeral of her four children in Kota Tinggi on Monday. “Everyone is in shock. It all happened so suddenly,” he said.
Letchumy and her children were on their way to visit a relative on Sunday when they persuaded their mother to let them go for a short swim.
Rajendran said Letchumy relented because it was the school holidays and she let her nephew S. Veerasamy, 22, take them to Tanjung Balau at around 11am.
The siblings are believed to have been swept away by strong currents, with only Veerasamy surviving the tragedy.
The bodies of Netthiah, Prasanah and Ganeswaran were recovered 45 minutes later about 50m away from where they went missing. Gopi was only found at 9am the next day about 500m away.
Rajendran said his sister, who is from Pasir Gudang, was grief-stricken over her loss and could not stop crying.
He said that her husband had unexpectedly passed away five years ago from a heart attack.
“We don’t know how to console her. She keeps looking at her children’s photos and crying,” he said.
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