TEARFUL GOODBYE TO SWEET ‘ANGEL’ Millen Varghese (14) died after collapsing at school THE communities of Ashford and Wicklow united in grief on Monday as they said a emotional farewell to popular teenager Millen Varghese. Millen from Bel Air in Ashford had just started third year at Colaiste Chill Mhantain when he collapsed at school after complaining of a pain in his head. The bright and bubbly boy was rushed first to Crumlin Hospital before being transferred to Beaumount Hospital where he died last Thursday. During his funeral service on Monday, a family friend said that Millen’s parents Martin and Ancy hadn’t ‘ been rearing a child, but an angel’. Millen had an uncanny ability to connect with people of all ages, making him hugely popular with his peers and neighbours. FULL of joy and laughter, Millen Chacko Varghese touched the lives of everyone he met during his short life. Fourteen-year-old Millen from Bel Air, Ashford died last Thursday after he took ill at school in Colaiste Chill Mhantain on Monday, August 31. He collapsed at school after complaining of a pain in his head and was rushed to Crumlin Hospital before being transferred to Beaumont Hospital on Wednesday. He died on Thursday surrounded by his heartbroken family. The oldest son of Martin and Ancy, Millen had one younger brother Patrick (7) on whom he doted. The Vargheses moved to Ireland from South India in 2004 and made their home in Ashford becoming very much a part of the community. Millen first attended St. Patrick’s National School before moving to Colaiste Chill Mhantain. A kind-hearted teenager, Millen died from a suspected tumour. At his funeral service last Monday which was attended by hundreds of his friends, Fr Donal Roche welcomed the members of the Syro Malabar community in Ireland and their clergy. He said it was with ‘great, great sadness and heartbreak that the communities of Wicklow and Ashford’ had come together to remember Millen. Fr Anthony, a member of the Syro Malabar community where Millen prayed with his family, said that ‘ no words can ever remove the pain’ being experienced by the Varghese family ‘While the loss of a beloved one is never easy, even when it is anticipated, it is most certainly the hardest when they are taken from us too soon.’ He said that while ‘death is inevitable, so are the circumstances behind it’ saying he hoped Millen’s family believed ‘ that God had the best reasons and the most surprising ways to take back an angel’. He reminded Millen’s devastated friends that while ‘it is a caterpillar that dies, a butterfly flies up to heaven’. During the service, symbols of Millen’s life were brought up to the alter. Fr Donal spoke of Millen’s love of photography and videography adding that like every teenager he had a smart phone and his had a hidden compartment where he kept his emergency supply of money. ‘Lego was a passion of his from a young age and also metal work was very, very important to him’. said Fr Donal. ‘A death like Millen’s reminds us how precious and fragile our lives are and how easily they can end without warning. Our lives are short and we must live it well’, he said adding Millen had lived a very good life during his 14 years. He said Millen was a boy who had ‘ touched a lot of hearts in his short life. He was a young man who gave a lot of joy and caused a lot of smiles and laughter and in these last few days has brought a lot of tears. ‘Millen’s story was really just beginning. He was only beginning to tell his story and was at the very start of his journey when he was cruelly taken from us and we are all the poorer for his loss. We all feel a terrible sense of loss. This was supposed to be a time of great hope and new beginnings, a new school term had just begun and he was full of hope for the future and then this tragedy came.’ He spoke of a prayer service held in Colaiste Chill Mhantain last Friday morning, hours after Millen had died and said the students were stunned by his death. He said how the students and teachers alike had wrote down their memories of Millen which he had read on Sunday night.

• published: 07 Nov 2015
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