A Shock!

I was sleeping so soundly.  It was midnight.  My wife woke me up and give me the bad news.  A friend of ours just passed away!  What a shock!  He was in Maldives having a short holiday and found floating in the water.  It was only a few minutes and the 2 friends they were with are doctors and performed CPR immediately and for an hour.  But it was to no avail.

I could not sleep after that.  Yesterday morning, we went to their house.  His parents were there and in deep grief.  It was so devastating for the family.  His wife was with him and they have to fly the body and the undertaker will do the necessary.  There are lots of documentation required.  To import the body, it has to be embalmed.  However, Maldives do not embalm.  Luckily, their church friends help out and contacted foreign minister who is in the same church.  So the minister directed his staff to help.  At first the body had to go to Colombo for embalming.  However, it is not a good time as Colombo is now overwhelmed with its own massive problem due to the bombings.  Then the foreign ministry found out the if the body is in dry ice and in a hermetically sealed box, it can be imported.  At first they wanted to fly the body on the original flight booked for return but Silkair aircraft was too small to carry so much dry ice.  So the body has to return by the next flight via Singapore Air as it is a bigger plane.

We were at the wake last night and some other old friends came along.  It is a sad event for all of us.