Lives Lost: Indonesian doctor's musical passion led to love
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Michael Robert Marampe knew what he wanted to be since he was a kid: a doctor and a pianist. He became both, and his passion for music even led him to his fiancée — a woman he never got to marry because he got the coronavirus.
Marampe met Tri Novia Septiani, a singer and worship leader, at the church where he played piano in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. They formed the duo Miknov, covering popular songs and composing their own music that they uploaded to Instagram and YouTube.
They planned to tie the knot in April in Bali but postponed the wedding as the coronavirus started spreading in the Southeast Asian country in March.
“He made a song for me. ... The title is ‘You Are the Last One.' Turns out I became the last one for him,” Septiani said.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of stories remembering people who have died from the coronavirus around the world.
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Loved ones recalled memories of the 28-year-old Marampe during an online memorial service in June. The gathering began with laughter, but many couldn't hold back tears as they remembered his short life.
His mother, Herlina Simbala, said she would never forget one of the last things her oldest son said to her: He promised to hug her again after he got out of the hospital. He never got the chance.
“He only texted me. I think he was afraid to talk to me directly,” Simbala said.
Marampe always aspired to be a doctor, following in the footsteps of his father, who is a physician at a hospital. After finishing medical school, Marampe took an internship that sent him more than 2,000 kilometers (1,260 miles) away from home to East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.
“He was happy with his job. Wherever and whenever it is. ... He never...