Losing someone is always difficult. But, when you lose your kids, life not only seems unfair but also tends to lose meaning and purpose. One such heartbreaking story is of this courageous and inspiring Tamil Nadu’s couple – Karibeeran Parameswaran and his wife P. Choodamani.
After losing their three children to the Tsunami that hit south India on December 26, 2004, life changed for this couple forever. And, unfortunately, it also happened to be Parameswaran’s birthday.
Losing their three kids pushed the grieving couple to an emotional extreme that the couple was thinking about committing suicide. But a tiny yet powerful thought saved them and gave them the purpose in life. The realization that it wasn’t only them who lost their kids but many children lost their parents and were left orphaned and helpless by the Tsunami.
And at that moment, they realized that they could only ease their own pain by becoming saviors for these orphan kids. Hence, they decided to adopt as many kids as possible and become their parents. While sharing her story with Reuters, the mother shared:
“We could see many children standing on the road, without shelter, without parents. I thought, I lost my children, why don’t I take these children and give them shelter.”
Initially, the couple brought four orphans home. And, soon after, the couple turned their home into an orphanage called Nambikkai, which means “hope” in Tamil. And, within days, the couple expanded their family to 36 kids.
The extraordinary couple – Parameshvaran, an executive engineer, and Choodamani, a branch head at a life insurance company – have since taken care of 45 orphans. Their dream Nambikkai has grown into two buildings — one for girls and one for boys. Their inspiring journey started with their own funds but later their passion encouraged many friends to also stepped in to help.
What is heart-touching to see is how these children have got another chance at life because of this couple. Many of the older children have moved out, some pursuing higher studies. A few have joined multinational companies.
At IFORHER, we are celebrating this couple’s courage and hope many would seek inspiration from them to give a ray of hope to the helpless and hopeless.