A crowdfunding page has been set up to support a Romanian man struggling to send the body of his late wife back home for burial.
The Courier revealed on Saturday how Walter Ioanovici, 33, has been left heartbroken after the death of his 24-year-old partner Iuliana Bordas on November 13 following a battle with colon cancer.
With little money and no job, Walter currently has no means of flying Iuliana back to Bucharest and then the 400 miles or so back to her hometown of Nădlac in western Romania.
Talks with representatives in Romania and the Romanian Consulate in Edinburgh are ongoing about what help is at hand, but friends of the young couple in Kirkcaldy have pleaded with people to do what they can to fulfil Iuliana’s dying wish.
“They came to Scotland in April of this year looking forward to a new life here, so it’s just been devastating to see what’s happened,” friend Jennifer Anderson told The Courier.
“Walter very quickly obtained employment and they both settled happily in a flat in Kirkcaldy.
“They were a very popular couple and very well-liked by all their Romanian friends and they quickly made friends with their Scottish neighbours.
“Iuliana was full of life and her great happiness in life was being with Walter – it was so obvious to everyone how much they were in love and they had been through a lot.”
Mrs Anderson stressed that Iuliana had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2009 but was in remission, which made it all the more heartbreaking when her cancer returned just a few months into her new life in Scotland.
Walter, who had worked at Amazon and Marine Harvest in Rosyth earlier this year, was forced to give up work to help care for Iuliana, and he himself is having to undergo dialysis after developing kidney failure a few weeks ago.
She passed away with Walter, her sister Daniela and Daniela’s partner Claudio at her bedside, and her body is currently lying in a local morgue while Walter and his friends search for avenues to send her home.
“I sincerely hope people will rally round to help Walter,” Mrs Anderson added.
“He would love to eventually come back to Britain to live where he believes with more studying he could make it as an interpreter which is very much in demand now with so many migrants from different countries arriving here now.
“He has touched so many of our hearts and is devastated at losing his lovely wife Iuliana.”
Anyone wishing to help can now do so via a Justgiving page at: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/WaltersPlight.
