Unit­ed in their fi­nal trag­ic fate, ac­ci­dent vic­tims Sachin Teeluck­d­har­ry and Ryan Ram­nanan were cre­mat­ed side by side at the Mos­qui­to Creek Shore of Peace yes­ter­day, where hun­dreds gath­ered to re­flect on the count­less mo­ments of joy and ca­ma­raderie they shared.

Their pyres for cre­ma­tion were adorned like roy­als - Ram­nanan’s draped with white and yel­low gar­land flow­ers while Teeluck­d­har­ry’s looked like an em­per­or’s cas­tle.

The friends, whose lives in­ter­twined from Form One when they met at Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege, took their last ride in sep­a­rate hears­es from the Debe Mar­ket to the Creek, af­ter their fam­i­lies per­formed sep­a­rate fu­ner­als at their re­spec­tive homes.

At Clarke Road, Pe­nal, po­lice worked hard to en­sure a smooth traf­fic flow as Teeluck­d­har­ry’s friends gave him a fit­ting send-off, com­plete with fast cars, smok­ing tyres and ear-shat­ter­ing noise from the drift cars ex­haust sys­tems. Be­ing a car en­thu­si­ast, the sport of car drift­ing had been Teeluck­d­har­ry’s hob­by.

Re­flect­ing on his life, Pun­dit Sunil See­ta­hal-Ma­haraj told mourn­ers life was too short to be un­hap­py.

“Live life and en­joy every mo­ment as if this day is your last,” Pun­dit See­ta­hal-Ma­haraj urged. He not­ed that no one was per­fect but every­one de­served hap­pi­ness.

Teeluck­d­har­ry’s broth­er Shas­tri Teeluck­d­har­ry, who de­liv­ered the eu­lo­gy, de­scribed him as the best big broth­er.

“When­ev­er he smiled it was im­pos­si­ble not to smile back,” Shas­tri said.

He ex­pressed hap­pi­ness that be­fore his broth­er’s death, Teeluck­d­har­ry had start­ed ful­fill­ing his dream of trav­el­ling the world.

“As a car en­thu­si­ast, he went to many events. He loved his van. As my big broth­er, I am grate­ful for all the love he showed me,” Shas­tri added.

Mean­while, at Ram­nanan’s fu­ner­al in Tul­sa Trace, the at­mos­phere was equal­ly som­bre. Un­like Teeluck­d­har­ry’s, Ram­nanan’s cas­ket re­mained closed through­out the cer­e­mo­ny, a stark re­minder of the tragedy that end­ed his life.

Ram­nanan’s aunt, In­di­ra Sama­roo, re­mem­bered him as a care­free, self­less soul who had a re­mark­able gift of bring­ing joy to those around him.

“He lived life with pas­sion and made every­one feel spe­cial,” she said, her voice break­ing with emo­tion.

In the weeks lead­ing up to his death, Sama­roo said Ram­nanan made a point to vis­it friends and fam­i­ly just to say hel­lo.

His cousin, Ritesh Bho­la, shared mem­o­ries of their child­hood, play­ing crick­et and hock­ey dur­ing va­ca­tions at their grand­moth­er’s home. Just two weeks be­fore the ac­ci­dent, Ram­nanan had giv­en Ritesh $25 for lunch and re­fused to let him re­pay the debt.

“He was an in­cred­i­ble force in my life,” Ritesh said, strug­gling to hold back tears.

Ram­nanan’s for­mer em­ploy­er and friend, Dave Ga­jad­har, brought Ram­nanan’s beloved dog, So­phie, to the fu­ner­al. The loy­al pet sniffed the cas­ket, her sad eyes re­flect­ing the deep sense of loss felt by all. Ga­jad­har played a video Ram­nanan had up­loaded on so­cial me­dia, where he strummed a gui­tar and made play­ful cat sounds, send­ing a rip­ple of bit­ter­sweet laugh­ter among the mourn­ers.

“The wa­ters will be qui­eter now with­out him,” Ga­jad­har said.

He spoke of the ad­ven­tures they shared—fish­ing trips and is­land es­capades—mem­o­ries that would now be cher­ished in the si­lence left by Ram­nanan’s ab­sence.

Ram­nanan’s un­cle, Richard Sam­lal, re­called the fre­quent calls he re­ceived from his nephew in Cana­da. Whether cook­ing or on a fish­ing ex­pe­di­tion, Sam­lal said Ram­nanan al­ways found time to con­nect with his loved ones, leav­ing be­hind mem­o­ries that will be for­ev­er trea­sured.

As the com­mu­ni­ty mourned, Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo re­newed the call for the Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port to re­store the ca­ble bar­ri­ers along the high­way—a mea­sure that might have saved the lives of the two men.

“Had those bar­ri­ers been there, they might have been in­jured, but they would still be with us,” Mayrhoo said, adding: “It is the gov­ern­ment’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure the safe­ty of its cit­i­zens.”

Ram­nanan’s ser­vice was of­fi­ci­at­ed by Pun­dit Lutch­mi­dath Ma­haraj.

Both Ram­nanan, 29, and Teeluck­d­har­ry, 27, sus­tained fa­tal in­juries af­ter a crash fol­low­ing a night out with a group of friends. Po­lice said they had been trav­el­ling in Teeluck­d­har­ry’s Nis­san Navara when it veered off the Solomon Ho­choy High­way near the C3 Mall and plunged in­to the Cipero Riv­er, San Fer­nan­do, ear­ly Sun­day morn­ing.