Emotional ceremony for two Naperville children
Five days after their violent deaths, a tearful Anand Tiwari struggled Thursday to let go of the children he cherished.
Long after the tiny white caskets of 4-year-old Vardaan and Ananya, 18 months, were lowered into the ground, the father remained kneeling by their side, as if comforting his son and daughter.
The heartbreaking moment epitomized a solemn ceremony in which 75 mourners, most of them dressed in white, the Hindu color of mourning, came together to remember the two children and their mother, Nimisha Tiwari.
Police said Nimisha, 32, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, intentionally ignited a fire Saturday in the family's Naperville home that killed all three. She did not leave a suicide note. The couple was having marital problems, but police describe the mother's actions as unexplainable.
Left alone to mourn his family was Anand Tiwari who, after the services at the Oakridge Glen Oaks Cemetery in Hillside, helped load the flower-covered caskets carrying the bodies of his only two children into a hearse.
The Daily Herald honored the father's privacy request not to attend the traditional Hindu services inside the sanctuary. Following custom, Nimisha was cremated.
Afterward, Anand Tiwari led a long procession, first by car and then on foot, to a corner of the cemetery where a sign hanging from a wooden post reads "Heavenly Angels," for the young children buried there.
Brightly colored flowers, balloons and stuffed animals decorated the graves of some 200 other children. Pinwheels spun in the wind, under a cloudy sky.
Amid the tears, mourners removed their shoes to approach the caskets as they were set into the ground side by side. Anand Tiwari and other family members kneeled, brushed their fingers on the caskets, pressed their palms together and touched their heads to the ground in prayer.
At one point, a family member led Anand to one of many nearby chairs draped in green cloth. He sat for a moment, only to get up again and kneel next to his children's graves. Tiwari brushed away attempts to move him.
His family and friends showered the caskets with yellow flowers before workers covered them with dirt.
The Tiwari children were buried next to the grave of 2-year-old Steven Quinn Jr., another DuPage County child whose life ended in violence. Steven was killed five years ago in Willowbrook by his mother's boyfriend.