Guddi Mehtar, 45 years old.

She last spoke to her husband on the phone for about an hour on March 31 at around 10 pm.

Umesh Kumar Mehtar, a 46-year-old Nepal Police officer who went on a UN peacekeeping mission, was shocked to learn that the mission was coming to an end.

After talking to his youngest son Prakash, who was with his mother, Umesh Kumar requested to show him the house's front yard. And, he took leave of everyone with the promise to return home on May 30.

After 18 days of talking on the phone, Umesh Kumar returned from Darfur, Sudan, but in a coffin. While working on the mission, he passed away on the morning of 1st April.

Umesh Kumar, a police assistant working at Rani in Biratnagar, flew to Sudan on November 1 of last year to take charge of the kitchen. 

Mrs. Mehetar was only previously told that her husband was ill. But the mother of three children was later told that her husband had been pronounced dead. "It's all over for me," she says, recollecting her memory of the last phone call with her husband. "If he knew this would happen, I would have never sent him." 

It was almost time for Umesh Kumar to retire from the police force. He was retiring after 2 years. His body was brought to his house at Biratnagar 18 days later for burial. The family buried him in Biratnagar last Monday in the presence of relatives.

Umesh Kumar was the sole guardian of the family with two sons, a daughter, and a wife. The family was supported by his earnings. Akash Kumar Mehtar, a 28-year-old eldest son, who was present at his father's funeral, said, "We still don't know how my father died. We received the news from the headquarters that he had passed away on March 24. We have heard that postmortem has been done but we are unaware of the report."

Guddi is worried about taking care of the house now that her husband's gone. She says, "If my son had a job in the police, it would be a lot easier for me."

Umesh Kumar, who was participating in the peace mission for the first time, was working as a battalion assistant (kitchen) of the Armed Police Force at Rani in Biratnagar.

He had left for Kathmandu on October 2 for the mission. After a month of training, he flew to Sudan with a team of 180 people.