Forty-six-year-old Lurdhumary from Kortampet near Vellore in Tamil Nadu, who had gone missing 14 years ago, was reunited with her family on Saturday thanks to the efforts of White Doves, an NGO in Mangaluru.
She was brought to White Doves by the Mangaluru City Police about 10 years ago, which took care of her all these days by offering psychiatric treatment, food and shelter.
She could speak only a few words in Tamil and had told us that her name was Mary. She remained in White Doves since then and was under treatment, said Corrine Rasquinha from the NGO.
Things changed when Fr. John Lewis from Tamil Nadu came to the NGO on a courtesy visit. White Doves’ manager Jerald Fernandes urged the priest to speak to the ones speaking Tamil so that they could get some leads to find out the families.
When the priest spoke to Mary in Tamil, she surprisingly remembered her home town as Kortampet. Fr. Fernandes then spoke to the priest from Kortampet, who announced in the local church about Mary staying in Mangaluru. As the word spread, someone contacted Mary’s daughter who was doing her paramedical course in Coimbatore, who in turn informed her elder brother who works as a driver that their mother was alive.
Later, it transpired that Mary had three children, eldest being a boy, Kulandaiyesu, who was nine when she disappeared. Second daughter was Gnana Anthony, who is doing her paramedical course and the third daughter Rackeal Lisiya who is in class 12 at a boarding school in Tirupathur. The youngest was just a few months old when Mary went missing. In the meanwhile, Mary’s husband Johnson too passed away while her name was deleted from the ration card presuming she was dead.
It was a happy ending on Saturday when Kulandaiyesu and Gnana came to receive Lurdhumary.
