OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The family of Anupama Vaidya, a 62-year-old Overland Park woman who died in a flash flood Monday, says they want the community’s help with ideas to honor her.
“She always lived life to the fullest,” said Jay Indurkar, Vaidya’s son-in-law. “She always saw the silver lining. And maybe there's a silver lining in this tragic incident.”
KSHB 41’s Rachel Henderson spoke with Indurkar and his wife, Aditi, on Tuesday.
The family held a funeral service Wednesday.
Indurkar shared a photo with Henderson later in the week of their extended family members walking along the trail where Vaidya died to retrace her steps.
“I offered: 'If you are up for it,' see why she loved being here so much,’” Indurkar said.
On Friday, he returned to the park with Henderson to retrace her steps, just like he did Monday.
“I found her just a bit further east of this trail,” Indurkar said.
When he found her, she was floating in flood water..
“That image is just printed in my brain,” he said. “I don't think that I could ever forget that scene that morning.”
Despite the traumatic image, he didn’t want his last memory of the trail his mother-in-law loved so much to be a bad one.
“There still is a lot of guilt that we couldn’t do more, but we want to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Indurkar said.
Following in Vaidya’s footsteps takes optimism.
“We believe in learning from every single moment in life,” he said.
For her family, honoring her life means improving safety.
"Her life is a celebration for us," Indurkar said. "Her tragic, untimely passing is a cause for us to do something to make it better for all of us."
They’re looking for anyone’s ideas and help.
“Every single person I talk to that walks up the trail says it floods all the time,” Indurkar said. “I think it takes everybody to think of ideas, and certainly we should use the technology we have today, which is very mature, to make it safer.”
He’s received several ideas, including raising the trail’s walkway, adding signage at the trail’s entrances when it floods, or reassessing the way residents are alerted.
“What can we do to make it safe and enjoyable for the least enabled of us?” he said. “That’s the outcome. That’s the tangible thing we’re thinking.”
Indurkar says he’s incredibly grateful for the support he and his family have already received.
"That’s what community is," he said. "That’s what our Midwestern values are. That’s what Overland Park is."
He said the current GoFundMe should be active until midday Saturday.
After that, the work begins.
“To get together, to move forward, to keep making this a better place for all,” Indurkar said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
