The 10-year-old sister of four brothers who died in a road accident on Sunday morning in Abu Dhabi has been discharged from hospital.
Izza Latheef survived, along with her parents Abdul Latheef and Ruksana, after the car in which they were travelling crashed in Shahama as the Indian family were returning home to Dubai from the Liwa Festival.
The four boys Ashaz, 14, Ammaar, 12, Azzaam, eight and Ayyash, five, were buried at a cemetery in Dubai on Tuesday. Bushra Fayaz Yahu, 49, the family’s domestic worker, was also killed and her body has been sent home to her relatives in Kerala state, southern India.
Family, friends and well-wishers paid their respects to Mr Latheef during an 'azza', a condolence meeting held on Thursday morning and evening at Al Warqaa Grand Mosque in Dubai.
The children’s mother Ruksana is still recovering from surgery at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City Hospital in Abu Dhabi, a family friend said.
The mother had asked to see the boys before they were buried and arrangements were made so she could bid farewell to her children before last rites were conducted.
Support for family
The Latheef family are from Kerala and have lived in the UAE for several years. The boys studied at Arab Unity School, where the loss has been mourned and memories of each of the children shared.
“Izza is being taken care of by a relative for now,” the family friend and social worker with the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre told The National. "She is physically OK and was discharged.
“The father asked to leave the hospital for his children’s burial on Tuesday and will be at the condolence meeting today. He will stay with his wife in hospital until she gets better. She needs support. He also needs all our support.”
Relatives and friends have rallied around the family to help them cope with their grief. “We cannot say they are OK because it will take time,” another family friend said.
“Even if you lose one child we cannot accept – they have lost four, it’s a lot, it’s too much. But we are praying. We try to think of how everybody has their time here, some of us will live and we will lose our loved ones.”
