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DWI victim’s grieving husband: ‘I loved her to death’

 

A husband poured his heart out Tuesday at the funeral of his wife who was killed when a suspected drunken driver smashed into the family’s car in Queens, saying that he hopes Allah “forgives” the hit-and-run motorist.

“Everything that he did, I hope Allah forgives him and guides him so whatever I went through another family doesn’t go through,” said Azaam Rasool of the still-at-large driver while speaking at the Bergen Funeral Home in Ozone Park before a throng of more than 1,000 tearful mourners – some of whom couldn’t even fit into the funeral home.

Rasool, his wife Zaalika Rasool, 40, and their 9-year-old daughter Sara, who are all Muslim, were heading home from a mosque Sunday night when a driver in a speeding BMW blew through a stop sign before slamming into the rear of their car in Ozone Park, authorities and witnesses said.

The impact of the high speed crash sent Zaalika and Sara flying through the car’s rear window, injuring Sara and killing Zaalika almost instantly.

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Sarah Zaalika, 9, survived and is in Jamaica Hospital.Photo: Ellis Kaplan

“She was a beautiful person from the outside, but I never knew she was so beautiful in the inside and those are the memories that you hold,” Rasool said. “Those are the things that give me strength.”

The devastated husband added, “There was not a bad bone in her body. She loved everyone equally.”

“I loved her to death. She loved me to death. She loves her children to death,” he said. “I wish my wife was still here. We were truly happy. I live a life of love for 22 years. Not one day did I regret it.”

As Zaalika lay in an open coffin covered in a white cloth with a green drape with Arabic writing on it, her oldest son, 20-year-old Shaan, broke down when he spoke about his mother, an avid gardener, mom of three and administrative worker for the Department of Transportation.

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Photo: Ellis Kaplan

“I never thought this day was going to come. It still doesn’t feel real. The house is never going to be the same,” Shaan told mourners. “Words cannot explain how I am feeling right now. I’m going to miss you, mom. I love you with all my heart.”

Nearly a dozen heartbroken members of the tight-knit Guyanese family got up to speak after Shaan.

“No other love is like my mom’s love. No one can replace her. She’ll never be forgotten,” said another son Zahir, 17.

Azaam Rasool told grievers that his daughter – who is still hospitalized from the wreck – keeps asking for her mother who she doesn’t know is dead yet.

“‘Where is my mommy, daddy. I want my mommy,’” said little Sara Monday to her father at the hospital, according to Azaam. “She knows. She’s a smart girl. She knows something is wrong.”

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