Jacintha Saldanha: Grieving husband makes private farewell by her grave ahead of funeral

mangaloretoday.com/ Dailymail

Mangalore-Shirva,Dec 17: The family of Jacintha Saldanha who committed suicide after the royal hoax phone call were today preparing for her funeral in India as her distraught husband surveyed the graveyard where she will be buried. Jacintha Saldanha’s family made the journey home yesterday with her hessian-covered coffin for her funeral, as it emerged that she left a note for the two Australian radio DJs behind the recent prank.

The senior nurse, who blamed Mel Greig, 30, and Michael Christian, 25, of 2Day FM for her death, is also said to have been involved in a long-running ‘personal disagreement’ with a junior colleague.

 

 

Distraught: Ben Barboza (left and right), husband of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, arrives today to examine the scene at the graveyard where his wife will be buried, in Shriva, north of  Mangalore, in India

 

Plans: Ben Barboza gestures while discussing the arrangements at the graveyard where his wife will be buried

Ms Saldanha, 46, was found hanged at her nurses’ accommodation at the King Edward VII Hospital in London, where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for severe morning sickness.

One of three suicide notes suggests that before the prank call, Mrs Saldanha was ‘unhappy’ that following a misdemeanour by a subordinate the hospital had decided not to discipline her colleague.

A family friend said: ‘Jacintha was involved in a personal disagreement with a colleague several weeks before the prank call. ’The hospital had decided not to take any formal action but to put the two nurses on separate shifts. Jacintha made clear her disappointment and that she was not happy.

’She felt the hospital should have taken a tougher line. She was critical of that.’
In the short letter she apparently singled out two individuals for blame. It also emerged that after she had unwittingly put DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian through to another nurse, one called back and told her they had played a prank which they were about to broadcast. That is believed to have left her feeling confused and agitated. At a memorial service in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, her husband Benedict Barboza said his wife’s death had left him devastated.
The couple’s son Junal, 17, and adopted daughter Lisha, 14, also paid tribute before travelling with her body to Mangalore.

 

 

A worker prepares the grave of Ms Saldanha in Shriva north of Mangalore, India