A Perth man has described the traumatic day his sister and brother-in-law drowned at a Western Australia beach while they were on holiday, leaving him the guardian of their two little daughters.
Perth couple Dr Mohamed Swapan, 44, and his wife Sabrina Ahmed, 40, were swimming when they got caught in a rip at Conspicuous Beach on the rugged south coast of Western Australia on December 28.
Beachgoers managed to pull all three from the water, but despite paramedics and police performing CPR, the couple couldn’t be saved.
Their 10-year-old daughter, Suhairah was caught in the rip with her parents but survived, while her 15-year-old sister, Subah watched it unfold while she was on the shore.
They are now in the care of their maternal uncle, Shahriar Ahmed, who lives in Perth.
Mr Ahmed is still mourning the loss of his sister and brother-in-law, and although he has a six-year-old son and a pregnant wife, he is now the legal guardian of the two girls.
He described the awful sense of deja vu he experienced when he heard the couple had drowned. He was driving near Centenary Park – the same spot where, two years earlier, his sister had told him that he was included in her will.
At the time, he’d told her not to worry.
The girls Subah and Suhairah, pictured with their uncle Mr Ahmed (left), his wife, and their mother Sabrina
Subah and Suhairah (pictured bottom right) are now in the care of Mr Ahmed and his wife
Mr Ahmed and his wife (pictured left), with his sister Sabrina, brother-in-law Mohamed, and their girls Subah, 10, and Suhairah, 15
‘People don’t think about these things – bad situations,’ he said. ‘Now I realise why she actually did it.’
When he was driving past the park on December 28, the horrific news came in the form of a voice message on his phone from Subah.
‘She said, “my parents aren’t talking,”‘ Mr Ahmed recalled.
‘I thought they had been in a road accident.’
Although media reports initially said that the couple had dove into the water in an attempt to save Suhairah, in reality the whole group had been swept out at once, he said.
Reception at Conspicuous Beach was poor, but Mr Ahmed was on the phone with emergency services during efforts to revive the couple. He remembers noticing his hand trembling on the steering wheel, and being told ‘that the CPR was not working’.
He began to realise that the couple had died and he had become the guardian of the girls.
‘It felt like I was dreaming and I would wake up soon. I was shaking, but at the same time my mind was telling me I have to take the whole responsibility.’
It was Mr Ahmed’s sister who had first encouraged him to move to Perth. He came over from Bangladesh in 2014 to study and help look after Subah, who was born that year.
‘She wouldn’t let me go anywhere else,’ he joked.
Dr Mohamed Swapan, 44, and Sabrina Ahmed, 40, couldn’t be revived when their bodies were pulled to shore
So Mr Ahmed had watched his nieces grow up and was already a part of their lives at the time of the tragedy.
‘Even though they’re my nieces, I feel like they’re my daughters always.’
He and his family have moved from their rental into his sister-and-brother in law’s former home in Willetton, southern Perth, where they are living with the girls.
He has started a GoFundMe fundraising page to help cover the costs of raising them.
Subah and Suhairah are both attending school and are have received counselling.
‘The girls unfortunately have seen what happened to their parents. They were in trauma, they still are in trauma.
‘I don’t know what they’re thinking – I don’t think they can express it.
‘We are trying to make that bond again, let them know that they’re not alone.’
The couple were respected members of the Bangladeshi community in Perth, where Dr Swapan was an associate professor at Curtin University
The GoFundMe page has received hundreds of donations, and raised more than $60,000 towards a goal of $300,000.
‘I have to thank everyone who is donating and also sharing the news. The amount of people who have actually stepped forward – not just in my community but from across Australia and overseas.’
Mr Ahmed said he would operate the fund on the girls’ behalf until they were 18 years old.
The costs of raising the girls were substantial – $1,500 a week for school, health, and other utilities, with an anticipated $25,000 in legal fees after the couple’s death.
He doesn’t yet have access to the deceased couple’s funds, as it could take up to a year for their assets and liabilities to be resolved.
He wants to pay off the mortgage on their property so that the girls have a secure future.
He said that in the months since December 28 he hasn’t lost the feeling that he’s in a dream.
‘I still feel every night that my sister will wake me up.’
Mohamed Swapan and Sabrina Ahmed were respected members of the Bangladeshi community in Perth, where Dr Swapan was an associate professor at Curtin University.
