Crushed Chaguanas man remembered for good deeds

Mourners at the funeral of Parmanan Sunil Sookoo, who was crushed to death at his job site, remembered him as a family-oriented and ambitious man.

Sookoo, 46, was cremated at the Waterloo Cremation Site on Saturday after a funeral at his home at Soogrim Street in Endeavour, Chaguanas.

A relative identified as Vishal referred to Sookoo, the father of two, as a father figure to his nieces and nephew, a dedicated husband, and a loving father.

“He was always there to support his parents. He would drop everything to be there for them,” Vishal told mourners. ‘The only time Sunil would get vex was when his coffee was cold.”

Sookoo, a supervisor with Universal Projects Ltd, was overseeing excavation and debris removal at the new Phoenix Park Industrial Estate in Couva on Wednesday.

Police said an excavator operator, 63, saw a cellphone on the ground while driving the machine and stopped to pick it up.

Then he saw Sookoo motionless under the tracks of the tractor. He immediately reversed it to remove the injured man, who had spoken to him moments earlier.

Sookoo was taken to the Couva district health facility, where doctors declared him dead.

Relatives waited a day to break the news to Sunil’s father, Babram Sookoo, 67. Babram, who has diabetes, was hospitalised at Mt Hope and relatives were fearful the death would worsen his condition.

“We told him on Thursday. Doctors discharged him the same day. We had to do it at the hospital. In case anything had happened, he would have already been there.

“For the funeral, a private nurse was there (to monitor his condition),” Babram’s son, Haresh, told Newsday by phone.

The funeral was streamed live on Facebook.

The officiating pundit said the death came as a shock to him, considering he and Sookoo recently spoke and were making plans for a puja.

"Life itself is so unpredictable. Today we are here, we do not know what tomorrow will bring," the pundit told mourners. "Do not feel you have to be old to die. Death is certain for all.

"The soul of Sunil will live on forever. Whatever happens, it happens to the body."

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"Crushed Chaguanas man remembered for good deeds"

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