By Matters India Reporter
Thaliparamba, Dec 31, 2024: Sister Francis Alayatil, the first woman ambulance driver in the southern Indian state of Kerala, died on December 30 at the age of 74.
The member of Dina Sevana Sabha (Servants of the Poor) died at St Anjela Home in Pattuvam, a village in Kerala’s Kannur district where she was leading a retired life for some years.
Sister Francis secured the badge of an ambulance driver in 1975 as the indigenous congregation had none to drive their ambulance. Earlier, she had obtained the driving license at the first attempt from Kozhikode.
She had served in their convents in several states.
She was willing to take poor patients to hospital even at midnight, says a report in keralaonline.com.
She used to surprise people in Rajapuram Kochichal, her village in Kannur, by driving the jeep carrying the choir in the parish feast procession during her vacation.
She was born Mary to Mathai and Annamma, who migrated to Kannur from Kottayam district in central Kerala.
She chose the name Francis after Saint Francis Assisi, her favorite saint, after joining the congregation that was founded at Pattuvam in 1969 by a German Ursuline nun.