Vedic chants echoed in the house of a Christian priest in Kerala’s Ernakulam district on Monday. Ritualistic lamps were lit, a Hindu priest read out mantras, and the courtyard was packed with people — both neighbours as well as visitors who had come from far-off places to pay their respects.

All of them had gathered at the Onasseril house for the last rites of Parvathi alias Payamma, a domestic worker at the house of Father O J Jacob, an Orthodox Church Christian priest, at Chottanikkara.

Payamma died on Sunday night at the age of 88 – after having served the Jacob family for 26 years. She was a Hindu woman.

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To honour her, the Jacobs decided to hold a ceremony, according to Hindu rituals, before her body was taken to the cremation ground.

“She stayed with us over the last 26 years and had gradually turned into a member of the house,’’ said Father Jacob.

Having lost her parents at the age of nine, Parvathi worked as a house maid for over three decades before she came across the Jacobs in 2000. At that time, the family was dealing with a tragedy of its own.

Joined by a tragedy

Father Jacob’s wife had passed away, leaving a six-year-old daughter, Merin, in his care. In Parvathi, Merin found a mother figure. And in the Jacob family, Parvathi found a home that had eluded her for years.

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Said Father Jacob, “Parvathi had worked as a maid in various houses for more than 35 years when she joined us. She looked after my daughter over the years. My daughter used to call her Payamma, which was a lovingly shortened form of her name Parvathi.”

During Merin’s wedding, Parvathi stood by her side at the church, taking on the role of a mother.

Parvathi fell ill a week back and had been under palliative care till she breathed her last. Her final rites at the house of Father Jacob were performed by her distant relatives as per the traditional Hindu way.

A mother figure for all

Chottanikkara panchayat member Aleena George said that not just Merin, Parvathi had turned into a mother figure for all the children in the area in the last two decades.

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“We all called her Payamma instead of Parvathi. Orphaned as a child, the woman had become inseparably close with the family’s life, especially that of the daughter she had lovingly raised. Scores of girls from the region, who had grown up in the warmth and affection of Payamma, returned on Monday to bid her a final farewell,” said Aleena.