Family of young couple killed in Air India crash speak of their loss
The family of a couple who died with their daughter in the Air India plane crash have spoken of the comfort they take from them dying together.
Zaheera Nanabawa said Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa would be missed 'tremendously'.
Mr Nanabawa ran a recruitment firm while his wife volunteered at a local Islamic school in Gloucester where they lived.
Speaking with other family members, Ms Nanabawa said her cousin was the 'glue' that held their family together.
'We'd often have fun at games nights and even when the older ones of us were not there Akeel would make a lot of efforts to engage with the young people in the family,' she said.
'They were away as part of their trip to Singapore and Malaysia, before they went to India, and we had two family events and we all really missed them there.
'We could kind of feel the lack of their presence.
'This whole news is absolutely shocking and devastating for us, and it will leave a hole within our family, but we are together and with each other where we can kind of console each other.
'They were so young in terms of their age and they were lifted together. They are going to be sorely, sorely missed.
'But we feel that their legacy is really going to live on.'
Ms Nanabawa thanked the many people who had offered messages of condolences since the news of Thursday's Air India crash.
'As Muslims we pray a lot and we were thinking about what type of prayers they made,' she said.
'That they were lifted together from this realm at the same time, there is a lot of comfort in that.
'We are going to miss them tremendously but hopefully they're together.
'That does give us a lot of peace because they were so closely knit together as a family.
'If Akeel had survived or one of the others had survived without the others it would have been devastating.
'We do feel that there is a peace with them being lifted together.'
Ms Nanabawa spoke of the couple's generosity with their time and would help anyone in need.
'Akeel would give his heart out to anybody at any time for anything,' she said.
'If you wanted something he would be there. He would constantly be just trying to give you things, whether it be a phone number to somebody that can help you with your car or dentist abroad.
'We believe this is part of their giving in this world and may they recoup in the hereafter.'
She added: 'We're all just absolutely totally in shock.
'But seeing people coming to the family home, seeing the messages of condolences, finding out the things that we didn't even know that they were involved in that they were doing, we hope will continue to bring them benefit.
'As a family and as a community we've been inundated with lots and lots and lots of messages.
'We know the impact of this is going to be far-reaching and far wide and we thank the wider community for their messages of support.
'It's an opportunity for people to look at their own lives and reflect and just think about the wide meaning of life.'
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