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Eugene Then KulingAdvertisement
By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Sept 13: There were no final words of advice, no special message and no indication that it would be their last goodbye.
For 12-year-old Eugene Then Kuling, his final memory of his mother, Debra Moset, is simply her waving goodbye at the airport.
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Eugene had accompanied his mother to the airport on Sept 3, when she was returning to Miri.
Asked if his mother had said anything to him before boarding the flight, he said there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“She did not say anything. She just waved goodbye,” he told the press when met at their residence in Kampung Semadang, Puncak Borneo here today.
That simple farewell would become the last time he saw his mother before she was killed in the helicopter crash on Sept 8.
Eugene, who lives with his sister Euodia Then Suling, 15, in Kuching, said his mother would regularly cook his favourite chicken curry for him.
His sister also remembered their mother for the meals she prepared for the family, including the ayam kicap (chicken in soy sauce) she made for her just days before the tragedy.
Siblings Euodia Then Suling, 15, and Eugene Then Kuling, 12, hold on to each other as they remember their late mother, Debra Moset, who was killed in the helicopter crash on Sept 8, 2026.For Eugene, however, it was the ordinary airport farewell that now carries a much heavier meaning.
There was no way for the 12-year-old to know that the wave from his mother that day would be their last.
The incident occurred on Sept 8 when a BO-105 helicopter carrying five people crashed near the Long Lellang Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) airport in Marudi.
The remains of all five victims were identified yesterday (Sept 9) through DNA analysis as pilot Captain Zainol Afiq Bee Sham, 30; medical officer Dr Ainul Baraah Kamaruddin, 33; medical assistant Alexson Adit Henry, 31; and staff nurses Debra Moset, 40, and Jessie Paya Jok, 44. — DayakDaily
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