By Tien-Shun Lee
A Woodhaven woman who was reported dead after a truck bomb exploded outside the U.N. compound in Baghdad last week elated her family last Thursday by calling them from a hospital in Iraq to tell them she was all right and to ask how everything was at home.
“She basically said that she was fine, that she's in the hospital, that she was injured but nothing major,” said Vladamir Manuel, 33, the son of Marilyn Manuel, the U.N. worker who turned 54 on the day she called her family.
In Baghdad, Marilyn Manuel was working as the personal assistant to Sergio Viera de Mello, the head of the U.N. mission to Iraq who was among the 23 people who died after the bombing, said an information assistant at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
On the night of Aug. 19, after the truck bomb exploded, U.N. representatives came to Manuel's house on 92nd Avenue in Woodhaven to tell the family that she had died. Some 36 hours later, Manuel called the house at 3 a.m. while her husband, two sons and a daughter were sitting together, mourning and making preparations for funeral services.
“She was shocked to find out that everyone was here. My sister had just moved to Hawaii last week,” Vladimir Manuel said. “She said, 'Is everything OK?' She obviously didn't know what was going on.”
Vladimir Manuel, the elder of Marilyn Manuel's two sons, said the 36 hours before his mother's phone call were filled with frantic preparations and many phone calls from all over the world from people expressing their love for the U.N. worker and support for the family.
“People were saying if we can lend a hand, just let us know,” Vladimir Manuel said. “We're just so thankful for everyone who was praying for our mom. We were so happy to hear that she was safe.”
The family did not tell Manuel they had thought she was dead because they did not want to upset her, Vladimir Manuel said.
Marilyn Manuel joined the United Nations in 1985 and had done tours of duty in Liberia, Somalia and East Timor. She went to Iraq in June after her boss, Viera de Mello, a Brazilian diplomat, asked her to serve as his personal assistant.
“Every time somebody goes away to a dangerous situation in the world, there's always a risk,” said Vladimir Manuel, when asked if he worried about his mother's being in Iraq. “This time around it was different because of everything we've seen in the news and knowing the situation in Iraq.”
Vladimir Manuel said he was not sure when his mother would return to the country, but when she does, the family plans on throwing her a birthday party.
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, ext. 155.
