Sunday Mail reader pays for tragic Jolanta's funeral

Apr 13 2008 By Grace Macaskill

Exclusive: Sunday Mail Reader Hands Over £10,000 To Help Pay For Funeral

A GENEROUS Sunday Mail reader will this week hand over £10,000 to the family of tragic migrant worker Jolanta Bledaite.

The anonymous businessman is in talks with the Lithuanian Embassy to ensure the cash goes straight to Jolanta's cancer-stricken father Saranus to pay for her funeral.

Dying Saranus, 60, is so poor he could not even afford to return a call to Embassy officials trying to inform him of his daughter's death in Scotland.

The former fish factory worker feared he would not be able to afford to bring 35-year-old Jolanta's body home.

But the Scots donor was so touched he offered to pay the funeral costs.

The Lithuanian Embassy in London will now set up a fund for Jolanta, who came to Scotland to help support her father and pay for his treatment by doing agricultural work.

Consular official Giedrius Tamasauskas said: "Jolanta's family are very grateful. They could not afford to bury her had it not been for this kind man.

"Her father cannot understand how people who never knew his daughter could be so kind. He is very touched."

The big-hearted businessman said: "I can't imagine how Jolanta's family must feel and I'd just like to help them as much as I can. I want to give her a decent funeral. It's the least I could do."

Jolanta's head was found in a bag on the shore at Arbroath by two sisters on the morning of April 1. A police search uncovered more body parts.

A separate Jolanta Fund, set up by two councillors in Brechin where she lived, has already raised £8000 in less than a week towards their £20,000 target.

Meanwhile, Jolanta's grandmother Albina Sapalaite revealed she had a premonition she would die on the day she left Lithuania. Albina, 80, said: "I could see Jolanta standing on the doorstep with a white dress and a veil.

"To me it was a sign dead people were escorting her out of the house, a premonition of something terrible."

Two Lithuanian men, Vitas Plytnykas, 40, and Aleksandras Skirda, 19, have been charged with Jolanta's murder.

'I can't imagine how her family must feel..I want to help any way I can'

Anonymous benefactor

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g.macaskill@sundaymail.co.uk