The family of 65-year-old Mammans are living with the hope that the story shared by the men from his boat, who survived the waves, would turn out to be untrue. They would prefer not to believe that story, of him slowly succumbing, until they get his body. Mammans had set out to the sea with 19 others in three boats at 3 p.m. on November 29.
“Our Papa was a perfectly healthy man. But, even he could not survive in the sea for three days. His boat was destroyed in the waves. He and two others were swept away by the waves to the other side. One of those who was rescued told us that he was clutching on to a kerosene can until late night on the second day. But he was trembling and becoming weak. He could not survive until the rescue helicopters reached, one day later. Now, all we need is to at least see his body,” says Preethi, a nun, and one of Mammans’s seven children.
The family has given their DNA samples, to be compared with the unidentified bodies that turn up everyday at the Government Medical College Hospital. “We can’t even identify him by his clothes, as his friends told us that he had removed those to reduce the strain while swimming,” says his son-in-law Stephen, a fisherman himself.
