A family looking forward to their daughter’s marriage next year is reeling after her tragic death on Friday.
Komal Kavita Kumar, 21, was one of three women who fell from a Ferris wheel at the Fiji Showcase.
She was admitted in hospital in critical condition but died soon after.
At the family’s home at Dilkusha in Nausori, her parents Thomas Anup Kumar and Sunita Wati, are still struggling to come to terms with the death of their daughter, the youngest of four children.
An emotional Mr Kumar said his last conversation with her was on Thursday evening, where he told her to quit her job and stay at home with her mother.
“I told my daughter on Thursday evening when we were talking, and yarning, don’t go to work, you just sit down at home with your mum because I’m working so there’s no problem,” Mr Kumar said.
“On Friday morning, I prayed, and I went to work, and, in the afternoon, I received the bad news from him (her fiancé).
“I was driving my taxi when this boy (fiancé) called me and told me my daughter, her friend and the friend’s mum fell from the ferris wheel. He asked if I was coming. I told him to go first because I already had a passenger, whom I picked from Nausori market taxi stand and I was on my way to Cunningham Stage 4 to drop him.”
When Mr Kumar reached Tamavua village, he received a call saying, “Uncle, Komal is no more”.
“My daughter’s friend and her mum are also very severely injured, and they are in critical condition.”
Komal’s mother Ms Wati cried as she relayed the last encounter she had with her “right-hand helper”.
“She said ‘some more roti left to make, Mummy. You finish it and I will have my bath’,” Ms Wati recalled.
Ms Wati said Komal’s fiancé came to pick her up that afternoon and that was the last time she saw her daughter alive.
In a statement on Friday, Fiji Police confirmed the incident and said investigations were continuing.
