18th April 2012
It was on this very day, 100 years ago that the Titanic sank.
George Thomas (GT), Shalom’s Dad wrote an email to his inner circle of friends: ‘Shalom is very weak and not in a position to lie down in bed due to severe wheezing. For the last one month she was not able to sleep at all...while she sits, she has to bend forward and rest her head on some pillows. Sometimes it is very difficult to see her posture especially when she is not able to breathe properly. Sheena is always with her and attends to her. But our Lord has filled each one of us with the PEACE which transcends all understanding.’
20th April 2012
3 am: Sissana Rajesh, UESI staff worker for Thrissur who was attending the UESI Staff Conference at Highfield, Kottagiri is jolted awake from her sleep by a dream on transport arrangements for Shalom’s funeral. She woke up her husband Rajesh and urged him to call up Sheena, Shalom’s mom to find out what Shalom’s condition was. But Rajesh declined to do so at that odd hour in the middle of the night. At dawn, Senu Sebastian, a former ICEU colleague of Shalom was disturbed in her spirit regarding Shalom and called up her father requesting him to pray for her. It seemed evident that the unseen but real world of angels was already buzzing with activity to make arrangements on heavens shore for the arrival of the day’s guest of honour. Repercussions of their activity were being felt by the saints on earth.
6 am: GT left home for Kochi Airport to catch the flight to Nagpur: The call of duty.
12 noon to 1.15 pm: Sheena and Steve (Shaloms’ brother) took Shalom to Jubilee Medical College Hospital, Thrissur for what seemed to them to be just another hospital visit to ease her breathing. They waited in the Out Patient department for their turn. Shalom was administered with oxygen. After which, the doctor suggested that Shalom be moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to stabilize. Shalom was shifted in a wheelchair with Sheena following behind. Shalom was calm and silent in composure all the while. As they waited for the ICU doors to open, Shalom’s arms abruptly dropped limp and her head drooped to one side even as Sheena rushed her hand to support her drooping head asking: ‘What happened, Molae?’
That was all...Shalom had gone...there was no struggle...it was a peaceful transition from the palm of her mother to the everlasting arms of her Heavenly Father.
1.30 pm: Cell Phone networks were jammed with an SMS that had gone viral nationwide and even internationally within the UESI community: ‘Shalom has finished her struggles in this world and gone to her heavenly abode...’
2 pm: Nimmi Christudas was despatched to GTs home to set the house in order before the body was brought in from the hospital. Shalom’s younger sister Serin told Nimmi Aunty: ‘I am waiting for Amma and Shalom chaechi to return from hospital so that I can have lunch with them.’ Nimmi, who had only recently witnessed the death of her own beloved mother gently tried to break the news of Shalom having gone beyond, but Serin, refused to accept the reality and went into angry denial asking: ‘How can it be when Shalom had received healing from the Lord?’ Even as the body was brought into the house, Serin refused to come out of her room to saying, ‘I will come only to see my chaechi with whom I can talk and play.’
21 April 2012
Friends, relatives, well-wishers, sympathizers and members of the UESI community had converged from all corners of the nation for the last rites. It was an unusually large gathering, but the atmosphere of the funeral proceedings was marked by a distinct SHALOM-NESS.
Not everybody expected that GT and Sheena would have had the mental makeup to address the audience and but when they did, everyone was all ears to hear what they had to say.
GT said: While many may see Shalom’s demise as untimely, I see it as God accomplishing His will and purpose in His time. God gave Shalom a life and she came to know and honour her Creator God while she was still in her youth. She suffered much but without complains. We will see Shalom again. She will be there at the pearly gates of heaven to receive us when our time to leave this earth comes. If you have put your personal trust in Jesus Christ, you too will be saved and you too can meet Shalom on the eternal shores. No matter what happens in life nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
Sheena said: God is good. Praise be to God. Parents do not have the right of ownership over their children. Children are gifts of God given to parents for a time. God, who owns them, has the sovereign right to call them back to His immediate presence as and when He pleases. Shalom had longed to complete her graduation along with her classmates. At this time when most of her classmates have been suitably placed, Shalom too has received her blessed eternal placement. God makes no mistakes.
Serin on her part picked one of Shalom’s favourite hairclips and solemnly clipped it onto Shalom’s hair. It
was her own sweet way of paying her last tributes to chaechi. She also reminded Shalom of the chocolates she had hidden beneath the mattress.
Shalom knew well the limitations of medical science and was confident of the better things that awaited her in the real world beyond this visible world. The fortitude with which she and her parents had been able to look at fallen world effects will remain for all of us who witnessed their story unfold before our eyes, an example par excellent on how to live in this world that is groaning for release from the painful consequences of sin. Shalom has gone to her home where there is no pain, no sorrow and no suffering to begin a new and glorious chapter of her journal that has no end.
Dr. George Kovoor who had been involved with Shalom’s palliative care exhorted the gathering saying: ‘We plan for our future from the context of our present, but God plans for our present from the context of our future, which is already known to Him. We are often more concerned about caring for the outer man which will one day die and decay. We ought to be more concerned about caring for the inner man who will live forever and ever.’
In the liturgy of the Orthodox Church is a prayer: ‘Deliver me from sudden death’. For Shalom this prayer was answered and so she, GT and Sheena were well prepared emotionally, spiritually and mentally for the ultimate appointment. You and I may not be as fortunate, therefore be reminded of the brevity of life and count each day as a gift of God. ‘Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come...’ (Ecclesiastes 12:1); ‘Prepare to meet your God...’ (Amos 4:12).
