Seldom did Hillary Haynes of UK know that her maiden journey to Kochi to celebrate the New Year along with her 89-year-old father would bring along a reign of sorrows.
Haynes’ father Kenneth William Rooke passed away at a hotel in Fort Kochi on January 1, a day after the heritage town played host to its famed New Year revelry. Worse was to follow since procedural hassles prevented Ms. Haynes and her kin, who arrived on learning about the death, from cremating the body here.
The father-daughter duo had been travelling the world in the past seven years. Rooke’s wife Freda had passed away earlier. “They travelled to India five times, and this was their first visit to Kerala. Ms. Haynes decided to cremate the body here after Christian burial rites on Wednesday (January 9), considering the complexities of taking her dad’s body back to UK and the emotional distress she found herself in,” said Joseph Edwin, Fort Kochi-based social worker.
On Wednesday, Ms. Haynes and two of her relatives got ready for the church ceremony to be followed by the cremation. This was not to be since the caretaker of the corporation’s crematorium in Fort Kochi insisted on directions from the higher-ups, though the hotel management and other Good Samaritans had procured the death certificate from the corporation and the post-mortem certificate too. A corporation councillor who they approached for help was not of much help either.
The body was, in the meantime, kept at the mortuary of Government Medical College Hospital, Kalamassery.
Learning about the plight of Ms. Haynes and her relatives Oliver Darren and Erica on Thursday, District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla directed the corporation officials to act fast and make arrangements for the cremation. This stirred the civic body into action, and the last rites have now been slated for Friday.
Reacting to the delay in according its nod for cremation, A.S. Anuja, secretary, Kochi Corporation, said the death was reported to the civic body on Monday, six days after the occurrence. “We were doubly cautious about granting permission for cremation since the death was of a foreign national and insisted on seeing the post-mortem report, death certificate, and other pertinent documents. Neither his relatives or representatives of the British Embassy who were reportedly apprised by the relatives approached us,” the official added.
“The person who contacted us happened to be from the hotel. Moreover, I was unable to attend office on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the national strike,” Ms. Anuja said.