‘I want to go too!’

THE MOTHER of two young men killed in a vehicular accident in the United States held on to their coffins in an effort to block them from being removed from her home during their funeral service yesterday. “I want to go, too!” Chandra Sooknanan screamed. She had to be restrained by relatives and eventually collapsed during the funeral of Kevin, 21, and Keegan, 17, who died in a vehicular accident in New York last month. The boys’ father, Bhadose Sooknanan fought hard to hold back his tears but eventually broke down and tearfully pleaded with relatives: “Be strong for me too, be strong.”

He later told mourners at the funeral: “No one will ever be able to understand this kind of loss until they experience it. “I will always love my sons.” The brothers lay side by side in white coffins dressed in royal turbans and cream-coloured outfits. Before the start of the service their favourite contemporary East Indian songs were played. Lolly, the aunt with whom the boys were staying in New York, explained that they were dressed in turbans because Kevin always  told her: “I don’t feel like a son in your house, I feel like a king.” “I will always have happy memories, sweet thoughts, laughter and joy when I think of them,” she sobbed.

Eartha Rawlins, who taught the brothers in primary school, described them as “a fitting example to  the other children, they showed love and discipline and they were a privilege to teach.”’ She recalled that Keegan always liked to  share whatever he had and Kevin “was like a little man, very intelligent and he liked to act.” “They did their school work with passion. I never thought the day would come when I would be standing in their funeral,” Rawlins said. Several family members, including brothers and sister of the deceased boys,  Ravi, Jason and Roslyn, performed arti over the bodies. Pundit Mukram Sirjoo performed the last rites along with two other pundits. Kevin, who worked in the shipping department of Global Technologies, was saving money to study at university to become a physicist. Keegan wanted to continue his studies at the National Energy Skills Centre in Debe. Following the service the bodies were cremated at the Shore of Peace, La Romaine.