In May 2012, 19 people, including two-year-old Evana Antonios, died in a fire at Villaggio Mall. Today, the children’s parents will mark the third anniversary of her death. Here, Manal Murgus and Abdelmasseih Antonios share with Doha News readers their unabated feelings of grief, guilt and longing to reunite with daughter.

Our precious daughter, Evana,

Words continue to fail to capture our feelings. The moment of your departure never evades our memories. Although we can no longer physically see and touch you, we beseech you for your spiritual intercession on our behalf in the sky for our solace on earth.

We do not know why you left this life so swiftly. The only consolation on the day you left us was that we could envision your passage to your blissful and eternal abode in the company of Our Lord.

Our hearts still burn for your departure and tears still flow afresh, yet they are simultaneously tears of joy as we know that you are exultant in your new life in paradise amongst angels and saints.

Please, Evana, do not blame Mama and Baba for your demise. When we chose Gympanzee for you you to spend most of your time every day from 8am to 6pm, we did not know it was going to be a death trap for you and your innocent friends.

You were all chosen as a sacrifice to expose the negligence of those with power and their indifference towards the lives of others. We are certain that even if your rights are squandered on earth, they will not be in the hands of the just God.

One day, we will see all of you, little angels, standing before those who deprived you of life and pained your families’ hearts, demanding that justice be served by no one other than God Himself.

Evana, pray on our behalf so that God may aid us to carry on with our worldly days until we reunite with you in His endless and undiminishing glory.

Pray that we do not weaken in the face of sadness that is eating away at our hearts like the fire that took your life away. We can only find ourselves crying: “The Lord gave, and The Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of The Lord.”

Mama and Baba

View the rest of the Letters to Heaven here.