Died on plane – children had to sit next to dead mother for 8 hours

It’s unimaginable what Britain’s Helen Rhodes’s family had to go through a week ago: the 46-year-old died while sleeping on board – CPR was still underway in the air, but the mother of two was beyond rescue. At that time, the flight to Frankfurt, where the family of four wanted to board a plane to Great Britain, took eight more hours.

The father Simon eventually had to travel to the UK alone with the children Nathan and Emma – without the dead mother, who initially had to stay in Frankfurt. A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign Office confirmed the death. “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died on a flight to Frankfurt and are in contact with local authorities,” she said, according to The Guardian.

Family was able to say goodbye to Helen during the flight
The family eventually had to make the best of the unimaginably bad situation: “While this was extremely traumatizing for the family, everyone had time to tell her what they had to say,” said a family friend on the Gofundme platform. Everyone was devastated because Helen was a devoted wife and mother. A fundraiser was launched to protect the family from unexpected expenses.

After 15 years, the family actually wanted to start a new chapter in their lives in their old homeland. After 15 years in Tung Chung, Hong Kong, Helen was looking forward to seeing her family in the UK, whom she hadn’t seen since the outbreak of the pandemic. Unfortunately, she never got to hug her parents in the UK again.

The fundraiser raised £32,997 (around €39,000), well above the £20,000 goal. “We are overwhelmed with gratitude,” said the organizer. “As we know, this is just the beginning for the Rhodes family. They still have a long way to go to pick up the pieces.”