When 79-year-old K.K. Sukumara Menon, or Sukuchettan as he was fondly called, died on Sunday, he might have evoked a prayer on everyone’s lips. For the past 32 years, he was a known face in Thripunithura and many other parts of the district to where he had taken the ambulance of Abhayam Charitable Trust.
He had saved many lives and arranged for the conduct of last rituals for the dead, irrespective of their caste or religion. And he continued his service with the same enthusiasm he had when he joined Abhayam in 1985.
Sukuchettan used to supply milk for the customers of his father Kunjukrishna Menon, who was a milk vendor. Later, he worked as a driver in a private firm, spent a few years in the UAE and then returned to join as ambulance driver at Abhayam.
He had retired from service last month and many dignitaries had attended his farewell from Abhayam on March 31. He died exactly a month later. He had transported 60,000 bodies from hospitals to homes and to crematoriums and had taken over 20,000 sick people to hospitals and back home.
While driving an ambulance was part of his duty at Abhayam, making arrangements for rituals for the dead was something he did voluntarily, at no cost.
It was on his insistence that Abhayam bought a mobile freezer to preserve bodies till relative of dead persons arrived.
Even after his retirement, he continued to serve families in which death had occurred.
He is survived by his wife Ammini Amma and four daughters.
