Kuwait fire: A grief-stricken father’s sobs move onlookers to tears

Abraham Mathai mourns the loss of his son Cibin T. Abraham in Kuwait fire, leaving behind a devastated family.

Abraham Mathai cut a forlorn figure with tears streaming down his face as he kept staring at the little piece of paper bearing his son Cibin T. Abraham’s image stuck to the white spread on a table set outside the reception area of the import cargo terminal at the Cochin international airport on June 14.

A few hours later, when the casket number 4 containing his son’s mortal remains was brought out and placed on the table, Abraham lost control of his emotions and collapsed on it sobbing inconsolably. The heart-wrenching sight also moved many onlookers to tears.

Hardly five months ago, he had stood beaming by his son’s side at his granddaughter Irene Alice Cibin’s baptism. Little did he know that he would be left a bereaved father, and his months-old granddaughter without her father.

Cibin, a 31-year-old from Mallappally in Pathanamthitta was among the victims of the Kuwait inferno whose bodies were flown in to the Kochi airport on June 14 morning.

In fact, Cibin, was set to make a visit back home in August in time for his daughter’s first birthday. Cibin’s sister Seeba is also in Kuwait and was among the first to came to know about the tragedy.

“Initially, he was reported missing in the company’s communication. It was only on Thursday (June 13) morning that his death was confirmed,” said Reji Varghese, among the relatives who had come to the airport to receive the body.

Anu Aby, a neighbourm said the family was hopeful for a long time that Cibin might have escaped the tragedy or at worse he was admitted in a hospital injured. He was on phone talking to his wife Anju just an hour before the deadly fire that claimed his life broke out, he said.