ECR mishap: Victim's family can't reconcile to loss

Chennai: On the first floor of the orange colored house lay a distraught mother who cried herself off to sleep.

In the next room, was glum Reshma trying to make her two-year-old daughter Mariam, eat dinner. Reshma is the wife of Abdurrahim, 42, killed by a speeding driver on Tuesday night on East Coast Road.

Abdurrahim and Reshma have three kids. Mariam is the youngest. The middle one is five-year-old Arif who is still unaware that his father will not be back from work tonight.

The eldest, Fathima, is a class 5 student at a madarasa in Neelankarai. “He was the sole earner for his family. He used to take care of his own family, and our mother,” said Banu, Abdurrahim’s sister. “His children are in school, and two of them are daughters. Reshma is a housewife. Who will take care of the family’s expenses?” she lamented.

Abdurrahim was the second youngest of the four siblings who lived together in a house at the end of Singaravelan street in Chinna Neelankarai. He, along with his brothers, was into ACare security for the past two years.

The family who rushed a heavily bleeding Abdurrahim to KMS Hospital Kottivakam, at 5 30 on Tuesday evening, had to shift him to Malar Hospital after the nature of injuries was found too serious for his survival. “His chances of survival looked slim. A little after midnight, the doctors informed us about his death,” said his brother, Akbar. His last rites were performed on Wednesday evening.

“It is very sad and unbelievable that something like this can befall someone so
good. Abdurrahim was a great human being, very considerate about everyone around him,” relative of the family said.