...lays teddy bear in baby’s casket

“Please pray and ask God to protect my two daughters so that they can come home soon,” pleaded Ravi Hosein as he laid to rest his only son, Alex, at a simple funeral service at the Claxton Bay cemetery, yesterday morning.

Earlier, Hosein performed the Janaza, Muslim burial rites, before the open grey casket of the tiny infant, while his wife, Aarika, stifling back tears, laid a small teddy bear next to her son, the youngest of the triplets born to the couple at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) on February 26. Dressed in blue baby clothes, the child seemed to be asleep as Imam Ishmael Ramjohn led the small gathering of friends and relatives in a special prayer for the baby’s soul, while his father laid a solitary stick of incense on the grave.

A wreath of white carnations wrapped with baby-blue ribbons marked the final resting place of little Alex who died on Wednesday from pulmonary hemorrhage at the San Fernando General Hospital. After the service, Hosein said his two daughters, Ariel and Ada were “doing well” at the hospital, but could not say when doctors would allow the family to take them home. And, holding onto his wife Aarika, who seemed unable to speak, thanked everyone who had visited them and offered prayers for the family. He also thanked Belgrove’s Funeral Home for their generosity in assisting the family in the funeral arrangements.