{"id":85059,"date":"2026-09-15T09:29:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85059"},"modified":"2026-09-15T09:29:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:29:59","slug":"your-words-truly-touched-my-heart-brother-of-late-singaporean-with-cerebral-palsy-responds-to-letter-from-president-tharman-singapore-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85059","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Your words truly touched my heart&#8217;: Brother of late Singaporean with cerebral palsy responds to letter from President Tharman, Singapore News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President Tharman Shanmugaratnam has sent a condolence letter to the brother of the late Gunaseelan, a Singaporean with cerebral palsy who died on Aug 29 from pneumonia.<\/p>\n<p>Gunaseelan, 42, was notably carried up Malaysia&#8217;s Batu Caves by his brother during Thaipusam in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>His brother, Suresh Vanaz, 47, responded in a Facebook post on Friday (Sept 11) to President Tharman&#8217;s letter, describing it as one that is &#8220;very special and heartfelt&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thank you so much, Mr President, for taking the time to read about Seelan&#8217;s life and the love and care that surrounded him,&#8221; Suresh wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your words truly touched my heart and mean so much to me and my beloved brother, and all our loved ones during this painful time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a photograph of the letter shared by Suresh, President Tharman commended him, stating that he had a &#8220;beautiful bond&#8221; with Gunaseelan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You stood by him and gave him not just security but warmth and dignity,&#8221; the President said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"736\" width=\"500\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsvanaz%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02E1PD5QLg6HbdKyrWK1xwt5asrThcsn2U4zoDT2aVni1jstJFcra3s2EVRkUjr5yql&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" allowfullscreen=\"\">\u00a0<\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Something I will always treasure&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Suresh said that Gunaseelan lived with disabilities, but never let it define him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He had a special way of winning people&#8217;s hearts without even trying. Wherever Seelan went, he left behind a smile, a memory and a little piece of his beautiful soul.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Expressing his pride for his deceased brother, Suresh added: &#8220;To receive such kind words from our President is something I will always treasure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thank you, Mr President, for remembering my brother and for acknowledging his beautiful journey.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His family told AsiaOne that Suresh has been &#8220;very devastated and broken&#8221; by his brother&#8217;s death and will &#8220;take a lot of time&#8221; for him to heal.<\/p>\n<p>[[nid:743970]]<\/p>\n<p>khooyihang@asiaone.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/singapore\/brother-late-singaporean-cerebral-palsy-letter-tharman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Tharman Shanmugaratnam has sent a condolence letter to the brother of the late Gunaseelan, a Singaporean with cerebral palsy who died on Aug 29&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}