Four teachers were among the 19 people who died in the fire at Villaggio mall last Monday. An employee of Gympanzee has shared with us some of the messages* they’ve received from the deceased’s friends and family.

Maribel Orosco, Margie Yecyec and Julie Ann Soco were all from the Philippines and Shameega Charles, 29, was from South Africa.

Charles is survived by her five-year-old son. This is a message from her sister:

I wish to say a special thank you for all your prayers and duahs. For me as a sister, it brings a lot of joy that she is loved by so many and that is how she will be remembered. A true Shaheed, Allah hu Akbar. I will surely do everything in my power to look after her son and raise him as my own. Shukr/Thank you to all.

And another from her mother:

I know you are taking care of your little angels you so dearly loved that you refused to leave them behind. You will remain in my heart… forever. I will take good care of Maahir and will never forget your last birthday 26/05/2012. It was the day your leaf started to fall, the only time in nearly 2 years Maahir spent half an hour with you on skype instead of 2 minutes 🙂 Love you forever 🙂

Maribel Orosco was due to go on leave in October after two years of being away from the Philippines. One message from her friend read: 

For all I know, up to the very end, you’ve tried saving others to death… You have a big heart, your kindness is immeasurable… I’m so proud of you sissie Bheng…. 

No more Octobers to wait for…

Now you’re coming home, but if it’s gonna be like this, I’d rather wait for more Octobers, knowing that you can still answer my BBM’s, FB messages, SMS, and calls…

Gone too soon, gone so young…. 

Credit: Photo of Shameega Charles and Zeinah Aouani courtesy of Gympanzee

*Note: None of the content was changed in those messages but corrections were made for spelling and punctuation.