FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Ka Te Za held her hand to her heart Tuesday as she sat on the floor of her home. She said her pulse was racing and that she might need to see a doctor.
She was speaking Burmese through a translator, but the grief in her voice told the story of what her heart was going through.
Ka Te Za's 13-year-old son, Hu Sein, died in a train accident Sunday afternoon. He and two friends, a 15-year-old girl named Sa Bee and a 13-year-old boy named Nohah Lan, had run away from their neighborhood in south Fort Wayne early that morning. They hopped a freight train on a lark and rode it for dozens of miles into Ohio.
When the train stopped, they decided to start walking home. They followed the tracks to a point northeast of Findlay, Ohio, a city 90 miles by car from Fort Wayne.
That's where Hu Sein became too tired to go any farther, and while his friends went for help, he fell asleep on the railroad tracks. As he slept, a train struck and killed him.
The Hancock County Sheriff's Department, which investigated Hu Sein's death, has incorrectly reported his age as 12. His mother said he turned 13 in July.
On Tuesday, Hu Sein's body remained in a morgue in Ohio, and the family was trying to figure out how to transport him back home, The Journal Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/14yj1PS ).
The family is Muslim, so they want the remains to be buried, said Minn Myint Nan Tin, the executive director of Fort Wayne's Burmese Advocacy Center, who served as a translator.
"They have to pay $1,000 to bring the boy back here," she said, adding that she has received permission from the boy's family to begin raising money to help cover that cost.
Hu Sein's mother said her mind was only on her son and bringing him home. Since his death, there had been moments when she thought he was just outside riding his bicycle. There had been times she thought he was following her around.
Ka Te Za's husband, Taw Due, said the family looked for Hu Sein early Sunday and could not find him, but they figured he was sleeping at a friend's home. Later that day, when he didn't return, they called police to report him missing.
Ka Te Za, 43, and Taw Due, 48, met in Fort Wayne. Separately, they had both fled the oppression of the military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and settled in refugee camps in Thailand before receiving the chance to come to the U.S. about five years ago.
The couple have a 1-year-old son, and they have other children from previous marriages. They both came here to continue their lives and so their children could receive an education, Taw Due said.
Nan Tin said her agency, which aids the sizeable Burmese community in Fort Wayne, plans to keep helping Hu Sein's family deal with his death, his mother especially.
"She's really needing support," Nan Tin said.
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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Journal Gazette.
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/burmese-mother-struggles-to-bring-sons-body-home-westport/
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