Human Interest

‘I still miss you’: Thai man cremates wife after keeping her body for 21 yrs

Bangkok, May 6 (EFE).- A man in Thailand has cremated his wife after living with her embalmed body in a small room in Bangkok for more than two decades.

Charn Janwatchakal, 72, finally performed the last rites of his wife, who died in 2001, with the help of the Phet Kasem Bangkok Foundation.

He used to talk to his dead wife and sleep next to the corpse all these years, pretending that she was listening to him and feeling his presence.

Charn contacted the Bangkok foundation last week to help him cremate the body as he feared that if he died, no one would be able to take care of his dead wife or give her a proper ceremony, the nonprofit wrote on its Facebook page.

A Phet Kasem spokesperson Friday told EFE that the man had the body inside a coffin and had not broken the law as he had declared his wife dead.

Charn lived happily with his wife and their two children until she passed away due to health problems.

The foundation said he kept the body at home because he could not accept her death.

His two children grew up, started their families, and moved out of the house.

Volunteers at the foundation organized a Buddhist ceremony and cremation of the body at the Wat Sakorn Sun Prachasun temple in the northeast of the capital over the weekend.

“I still miss you, every minute, and my love for you has not changed,” Charn said as volunteers carried away the coffin, The Nation newspaper reported.

The elderly man, called by netizens the “endless love man” or “man eternal love” after his story went viral, took the ashes home.

The local media reported that Charn is a well-educated man with several degrees.

He graduated in pharmacy before working as a health worker in the army. He also has a law degree and obtained a court license to practice as an advocate in 1984. His wife worked with the public health ministry.

But the foundation found that the man lived in precarious conditions, without electricity and running water at his home. They vowed to help him fix the place and visit him daily.

In return, he has agreed to help volunteer at the foundation.

Thousands of netizens warmly reacted to his story on the foundation’s Facebook page, giving Charn their condolences and praising his love. EFE

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