After losing family in Wayanad landslides, woman loses fiancé in accident

A 24-year-old woman, who lost her entire immediate family in the devastating Wayanad landslides in Kerala in July, has now lost her fiancé too in a car accident.

Shruthi had spoken to The Federal only on Tuesday (September 10) about how she was picking up the pieces after the heart-wrenching loss of her father, Sivannan, her mother Sabitha, and her sister, Sreya, who was only 19 and a degree student. Not only them, she also lost nine extended family members, including her grandparents, aunts, and uncles on July 30.

“We managed to get back and cremate the bodies of my sister and father earlier. My mother was still missing until the DNA test confirmed that she is buried in grave C-92 in Puthumala. I’m unsure if I should exhume her to be laid to rest with dad and Sreya. I might need more time to decide,” Shruthi had told The Federal.

A flow of tragedies

Shruthi also lost about Rs 4 lakh in cash and around 15 “sovereigns” of gold along with her newly-built home that was washed away in the landslides that struck Chooralmala and Mundakkai villages of Meppadi panchayat, claiming over 200 lives. The accountant at the MIMS Hospital in Kozhikode now lives with her cousins at her uncle’s place near Kalpetta town.

Shortly after that conversation with The Federal, Shruthi and her fiancé, Jenson, were involved in a car accident near Kalpetta. As their vehicle collided with a bus, both of them, along with some relatives, suffered injuries. Jenson, who suffered a critical head injury, died on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported.

Condition was critical

A spokesperson of the private hospital in Wayanad where the 27-year-old Jenson was admitted, confirmed to PTI that he succumbed, at 8.50 pm, to the injuries he suffered in the accident. He was being treated at the Dr Moopen Medical College.

Earlier in the day, doctors told TV channels that he was brought to the hospital in a critical condition with his vital signs very low, excessive bleeding from his nose and bleeding inside and outside his brain.

Shruthi and some other family members of Jenson, who were also travelling in the same car, also got injured in the accident.

Wedding was planned this month

Jenson was Shruthi’s only support during the tragic times. She had got engaged to him on June 2 after a 10-year courtship. On August 29, the couple had visited the Puthumala graveyard where her mother is buried and had reaffirmed their commitment to each other.

Jenson, who worked for a car cleaning company in the district, had said that he promised himself that he would never leave the side of his school-time friend Shruthi when she told him about the tragedy that had befallen her family.

The couple, initially set to tie the knot in December with fanfare, were planning to have a simple court-registered marriage in September. However, that was not to be.

(With agency inputs)