CHEERFUL, FRIENDLY ELDEST DAUGHTER IS JUST LIKE JOANNA - HUSBAND

SERIAN, April 26 (Bernama) -- The friendly and cheerful disposition of Allesia Felice Haslie, 4, the eldest daughter of Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) Leading Seaman Joanna Felicia Rohna, who was killed in the recent helicopter collision, captivated members of a delegation led by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri who visited Joanna’s family at Kampung Engkaroh Tebakang, near here today.

“Icha (Allesia’s pet name) is the same as her mummy… (Joanna) was good with her family and helped a lot of her friends with her inspiring words,” her husband, Petty Officer Haslie Ali, 33 said.

The father of two shared that he decided to get to know Joanna, in 2018 as he was smitten by her tough but loving personality.

“She was my junior, I enlisted in 2013, she in 2017. We met briefly but chatted a lot on Whatsapp… in 2019 we made the decision to get married, so we were in the category of falling in love after marriage,” he said, adding that their second child, Hovannes Haslie, who just turned one, looked most like their mother, and that Joanna had made a peculiar request to him to take care of both of their children should she die just a week before the crash.

“She was watching a Korean drama and there was a death scene and she just said - Mun ku mati tok, jaga anak dua orang ya (if I die, look after both our children) - so I thought she was just kidding,” he said, sharing that he planned to fulfil Joanna’s wish to celebrate Hari Gawai in her hometown in Kampung Sumpas Tampek, Serian.

Haslie said that his children were too young to understand what exactly happened to their mother, and hoped that Joanna’s family would be able to love them like their mother did.

Meanwhile, Nancy, who spent around 30 minutes with the family, said that counselling services for the school-going children of all victims of the TLDM helicopter collision in Lumut Perak would be managed by counsellors under the Education Ministry while her ministry under the Social Welfare Department would be responsible for managing counselling services for families that require them.

“At this time, they (the families) are surrounded by people so maybe they might feel it less, but after three days they might be more depressed so that’s why we need to introduce these services to help them,” she said as she presented initial aid of RM10,000 and a special donation of RM3,000 to Joanna’s family.

She added that the government would continue to provide assistance to the families of all the victims involved in the crash to ease their burden.

The collision involving a Maritime Operations Helicopter and a Fennec M502-6 helicopter at the TLDM base in Lumut, Perak killed 10 navy officers and personnel, including three women.

-- BERNAMA