Parents unable to attend daughter’s funeral thank the many who did
The parents of a “bright and friendly” girl who was killed in a car accident last week thanked everyone who attended the funeral prayers they were forced to miss because of the severity of their injuries.
Nahid Abdul Qader, 40, was driving when the family SUV hit a pothole, overturning the Pajero carrying her husband and four children, including 14-year-old Dana Al Jarrar, who died on impact.
She remained at Rashid Hospital yesterday, where she and members of her family have been since Friday.
“I was driving the car when the accident occurred. It was not the first time I had driven from Al Ain to Dubai,” she said from her wheelchair, her face badly bruised and scratched and her right eye bloodshot.
The mother was still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her eldest child.
Recalling that day, she says she still does not know what happened.
The family was travelling to Dubai, where they usually spend their weekends.
“I remember my husband saying be cautious. Then, the car flipped several times.”
Her husband remembers everything that happened. Dr Amjad Al Jarrar, Dana’s father, teaches at a university in the UAE.
He said his wife had drifted a little to the side of the road when he told her to be careful.
“The car swerved to the sandy area of the road. I asked her to go back on to the road, but she couldn’t. Then, she drove over a hole, which caused the car to flip several times.”
The children screamed as the car tumbled.
“I pulled myself out of the car to help my children but I felt severe pain in my leg and chest,” he said.
He remembers a motorist stopped to help them who thankfully turned out to be a doctor and performed CPR on the children.
“Everything happened so quickly,” he said. “We tried our best to help Dana and all the children.”
He said the accident was destined to happen and has been a turning point in his life, a lesson that nothing is in our hands.
“I have learnt that nothing goes as planned,” Dr Al Jarrar said. “Dana was an angel and we will all miss her so much.”
Some of the family were taken to hospital by ambulance, others were flown there. Yara, 12, and Bissan, 9, suffered fractures, broken hands and legs. Mohammed, 6, fractured his pelvis in several places and is still in intensive care, his father has been walking between hospital rooms to visit him.
This week, dozens of pupils from Al Dhafra School, where Ms Abdul Qader works as a teacher, visited her in hospital to check on her progress and offer their condolences on their schoolmate.
They gathered around her as she made them all promise her that they would continue to study hard for their upcoming exams.
Dana was a Grade 9 pupil and was top of her class, her mother said. “She was scoring high grades in all her exams and classes,” she said.
She and her daughter were due to attend a school trip to the UK together next month and Dana had been eagerly buying clothes and bags in anticipation.
“Dana was not only a daughter, she was a sister and a friend,” she said.
Her funeral was held on Monday at Hamoudah bin Ali Mosque in Al Ain.
Thousands of mourners flocked to the service after hearing that her parents would not be able to attend – 3,000 people were estimated to be there.
Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, thanked the people of Al Ain for taking part in the funeral and prayed for the family.
“May Allah have mercy on Dana who died in a car accident and May Allah reward Al Ain’s people with the best reward for their positive citizenship. They responded to the funeral prayer calls sent via phone messages as her parents are still at the hospital (may Allah heal them) and filled Hamouda Ben Ali Mosque,” Sheikh Saif said in a post on Twitter.
“The UAE is a country of goodness,” Ms Abdul Qader said.
“I thank everyone who attended the funeral from the bottom of my heart.”