May 14, 1983 - Feb. 21, 2004
On February 21, 2004, our life was shattered
and changed forever. Our beloved daughter, Nadia, was killed brutally and unnecessarily in a drinking and
reckless driving case. She was an innocent pedestrian/victim of drinking and reckless driving, so horrific
that it literally crushed the life out of her.
Nadia, a very promising sophomore at UIUC, was
walking home to her apartment when it happened. It has been more than two years since it happened. Still my
dumb mind is not ready to accept it as real - it has not happened! It can’t have happened! How can it happen
in a place of higher learning? I believe that the purpose of higher learning is to create responsible citizens –
not reckless/drunken drivers! Drinking and driving recklessly itself is a crime and killing innocent people is
another violent crime. Together it is a violent double crime – it must be taken very seriously!
Even the thought that what happened may have
happened freezes my blood in my body and it becomes paralyzed. I wish my heart could stop too and I could be
with my poor child to hold her and be with her. Most of the time I feel such a tremendous pain in my heart,
as if it will burst out. Still my pain is not even close to the pain my poor child suffered, the confusion
and helplessness she felt when she was hit by the car on and on…. I wish I could be there to protect her
with all my body and soul.
No parent should ever need to feel the pain and
sufferings that we are going through. Only a parent may imagine the amount of pain, and a parent who has lost
a child would be able to feel the terrible pain that we are having. It is not only our daughter’s life that was
taken away – it's our’s too.
The void and pain that Nadia’s death has caused
us is indescribable. There are no words powerful enough to express our emptiness and grief. We pray to God to
give us the strength to endure this very unbearable pain and loss.
Shamsul Chowdhury
