By Howard Koplowitz
Relatives and friends of Ghanwatti Boodram gave their final goodbyes to the 40-year-old Guyanese immigrant, who was killed when her Floral Park home exploded Friday.
Her husband, Dindial Boodram, said his wife “will be deeply missed.”
“They will miss their mother. They all talk about their mother,” he said during the Hindu services at the Dalton Funeral Home in Floral Park, referring to the couple’s three boys – Ryan, 10; Kevin,8; and Chris,7. “They’ll miss her a lot and I know I’ll take care of them.”
Ghanwatti, a nurse at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, died after an explosion apparently caused by a gas leak ripped through her 260th home at around 5 p.m. Friday. Her husband and three kids were not inside the home.
Ghanwatti’s brother-in-law from Canada spoke of how her family visited him two weeks ago.
“I still remember that day,” he said. “We had a really good time and she enjoyed the meal.”
A cousin of Ghanwatti, Malcolm Seemungal, called her “an incredible person.”
“Education was always her thing,” he said. “She encouraged her kids to do good in school. She always loved her kids. She always talked about her kids. She lived for her kids.”
Teachers from PS 115, where Ghanwatti’s three boys attend school, paid their respects as well as state Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck).
“As a father of three kids, it breaks my heart,” he said. “The whole neighborhood has been feeling the pain that the family is feeling because they know (the explosion) could just have been easily their house.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
