A Kerala story: Hindu rites at Christian priest home as family bids adieu to help of 26 years

In Kerala's Ernakulam district, a Hindu ceremony took place in the home of a Christian priest to honor Parvathi, a 88-year-old former domestic worker who had been a beloved member of the Jacob family for 26 years. The priest, Father O J Jacob, who had lost his wife six years ago, had become a father figure to Merin, his six-year-old daughter, after Parvathi took on the role of a mother figure.

Parvathi stood alongside Merin at her wedding, treating the Jacobs as her own family. Upon her illness, she was given palliative care, and her final rites were performed by her relatives according to traditional Hindu customs in the courtyard of the Onasseril house. The community, including Chottanikkara panchayat member Aleena George, gathered to bid farewell to the beloved Parvathi, who had become a mother figure to many children in the area over the past two decades.