Before the tragedy, that family was considered loud and brash in the colony. On that fateful day, one of them who had just learned to drive, panicked while approaching the parking lot and rammed his car against another one already stationed there.
The matter would have been settled by an insurance company if it was just an accident involving two vehicles but for the litt1e girl of six, another neighbour's daughter, who suddenly came between from nowhere. The driver immediately took the child to a nursing home. But upon her being declared dead by the doctors, he took courage to inform her family before surrendering himself at the local police station with his can.
As usual a huge crowd gathered around and matters took an ugly turn when a section of the public threatened to teach the erring driver and his family a lesson. All along, the victim's family didn't come out of their house and over the next few days were busy performing the last rites of their dead child. They didn't even lodge a police complaint, leave alone taking revenge on the killer of their only daughter.
Without a written complaint from the victim's family, the driver got bail after a couple of days in police custody and the case is still pending before the courts. Thereafter, the 'killer' driver and his family went to the victim's father to express their remorse and offer 'compensation'. But the child's father not only forgave the driver, he refused to take money.
He told them poignantly, "It was God who gave me my little girl and if He has decided to take her away like this, how can I blame you when I know you didn't do this intentionally?"
More importantly, the bereaved father made sure that the driver and his family didn't suffer anything from other neighbours. To this day both of them are living side by side. With the change that today, the "loud and brash" family is looked upon differently by the same colony. Who says there aren't good people around?
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