400 attend funeral service of accident victim

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KOTA KINABALU: Some 400 people attended the funeral service of car accident victim, Jeremiah John Lajiun, at the Stella Maris Church in Tanjung Aru near here on Thursday.

Members of the family, relatives and friends attended the sombre one-hour funeral service of the 21-year-old who died in a road accident on Sunday before his remains were taken to the Roman Catholic cemetery at Mile 4, Jalan Penampang for internment.

According to his mother, Judith John Lajiun, a senior staff in a telecommunication company, his late son was a hole-in-the-heart patient and had undergone corrective heart surgery sponsored by the Society for the Sabah Heart Fund when he was only six months old.

“Life has been tough for him even from the start. But I did not expect him to be taken away so early,” she said.

She however accepted the ill fate that had befallen her son and said that she was grateful to have had at least 21 years of watching him grow up. Jeremiah, she said, always had a soft spot for the elderly folks, having looked after his grandmother who suffered from renal failure, at the hospital bed alongside his other cousins prior to her demise last year.

She added that on the ill-fated day, Jeremiah had spent the day cleaning and painting their house in preparation for the Christmas celebration.

In the evening, he fetched his grandmother (from his father’s side) to attend the evening mass at St Thomas church in Kepayan, before going to attend a memorial service.

She only knew of his accident from a staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital about 10pm on Sunday. Jeremiah’s remains were kept at his grandparents’ house at Mile 6, Jalan Putatan, between Monday and Thursday prior to burial.

“It is part of the Kadazan culture to keep the remains of their dead prior to burial as a sign of respect for the dead and to allow the remaining family to mourn their death.”