She lost her family in the Wayanad landslide. A road accident took away her last hope

Critically injured, Jenson was put on ventilator support. He died of his injuries Wednesday night. Sruthi, who is in her early 20s, and the others survived with minor injuries.

The two, who came from different faiths, had been friends since school. A month before the landslide, Sruthi’s family had moved to a new house at Chooralmala village, where they also held the engagement festivities.

Last month, in an interview to a TV channel, Jenson had said, “We have been friends for the last 10 years. Now, we have to start from scratch, but we will live happily. I will not leave her alone; I will always hold her close to my heart. Our dream is a house and a job for Sruthi. After my death, she should not be left alone. There should be a job for her.”

On the fateful day, the debris that plummeted down from the hills took with it Sruthi’s entire family — her father Shivanna, a mason; her mother Sabitha, a shop worker; and younger sister Sreya, a college student. Their newly constructed home, along with 15 sovereigns of gold and Rs 4 lakh, which her parents had kept aside for her marriage, was also washed away.

Sruthi and fiance Jenson were travelling for their wedding arrangements when they met with the accident Tuesday

Sruthi, who worked as an accountant in Kozhikode, was away from the village at the time.

Her paternal uncle Siddaraj, his wife Divya and their son also died in the landslide, leaving their daughter Lavanya as the only survivor. Like Sruthi, Lavanya, a student of Navodaya School in Wayanad, also escaped because she was away from home.

Sruthi and Jenson were supposed to get married in December, but after the tragedy, her relatives planned to advance the date. Ambalavayal panchayat member Krishnakumar said the two were travelling as part of the wedding preparations. “We were planning to hold a small function. The people’s representatives in Wayanad wanted to arrange everything,” he said.

Ever since the landslide tragedy, Jenson had been by Sruthi’s side, as she initially remained lodged at a relief camp along with others. Earlier this month, she moved in with a relative in Kalpetta. “My parents will be happy knowing that I am not alone,” she had told a TV channel, with Jenson by her side.

On August 30, exactly a month after the tragedy, the two had visited the mass burial ground at Puthumala near Meppadi, where unidentified bodies were buried. The bodies of her father and sister had been identified soon after the tragedy, but it took a DNA test to identify her mother’s remains.

Jenson is survived by his father Jayan, mother Pushpa, and siblings Jaison and Jaya. In the TV interview, Jenson, who cleaned overhead water tanks, spoke about the perils of his profession: “I don’t know how long I will live. Going by the nature of my job… in the past, I have slipped from buildings on several occasions. But she will not be left alone if there is a job for her.”