SERIAN: It was a heart-wrenching moment when four-year-old Allesia Felice Haslie said goodbye to her mother, the late Senior Seaman Joanna Felicia Rohna, during her funeral at Kampung Engkaroh here.
"Mummy irak gepih (where is mummy going)?" she asked in Bidayuh as the casket was carried into the hearse by Navy pallbearers on Thursday (April 25).
Allesia was being carried by her father Haslie Ali, 33, who could not hold back his tears.
Joanna, who also had a one-year-old son, was one of 10 Navy personnel killed in the helicopter crash in Lumut on Tuesday (April 23).
She was laid to rest at the Kampung Engkaroh Christian cemetery at 11am after a brief service.
The burial rites were carried out according to Navy tradition.
Royal Malaysian Navy First Admiral Franklin Jeyasekhar Joseph then presented the Malaysian flag to Haslie, who is a Navy petty officer.
"I would like to thank everyone who was involved in my wife's funeral arrangements," Haslie said.
Franklin conveyed condolences on behalf of the Navy to Haslie and Joanna's family.
"It's truly a loss to the nation," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, family members, villagers and military personnel paid their last respects to Joanna at Haslie's family home at Kampung Engkaroh.
Among those in attendance were Malaysian Army First Division Infantry commander Maj Gen Datuk Fauzi Kamis, former Eastern Field commander Lt Gen Datuk Stephen Mundaw and Serian MP Datuk Seri Richard Riot.
Also present were Joanna's parents Francis Penny and Rohna Tumbo, grandparents Tumbo Usen and Rindung Milo, and her four younger siblings.
