July 22, 2013

Soldier dies in Sinai

Nanise Loanakadavu
Saturday, July 20, 2013

UMESH Chandra, 55, did not want his children to bid him farewell at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks when he left for Sinai in May.

For the past two weeks, there was no phone call from Mr Chandra which made his children worry.

Their hopes were shattered when senior military officers were at their doorstep on Wednesday afternoon to inform them that their father had passed away after he collapsed in Sinai in the Middle East on Tuesday.

Nitin, 25, Sonam, 21, and Edwin Chandra 15, were shocked and said their Muanikoso home at Nasinu would never be the same without their dad.

The three children wished they could see their dad for the last time.

Nitin said when the military officers told them about his father he grabbed one of them, saying "this is a lie my father is still alive".

Sonam said her father was a hardworking man who loved to provide the best for his family.

"He loved his work, he loved serving the people of Fiji and for him to die in another country was unbearable," she cried.

She said the family was informed that their father's body would arrive home next week.

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