Jacob Thomas
You were my best friend. Twenty years was not enough. It will never have been enough. The children and I carry you with us everywhere we go.
May 11, 2026
(45 years, 11 months)
Dr. Anitha's Lullaby
Dr. Anitha Susan Thomas lived forty-five years with such completeness that those who knew her find it almost impossible to believe the number. Born on 2 September 1978 in Kottayam, Kerala, to a family of teachers and doctors, she grew up understanding that education was not a privilege but an obligation — one you fulfilled and then returned to the world.
Anitha completed her MBBS from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, followed by her MD in Paediatrics from St. John's Medical College, Bangalore. She joined Bangalore Baptist Hospital in 2008 and remained there for the rest of her career, becoming one of the most trusted paediatric oncologists in the city. Parents of critically ill children asked for her by name. That is the highest possible professional honour.
She married Jacob Thomas in 2004 and they built a life in Bengaluru with their two children, Elias and Ruth. She was a devoted mother who somehow attended every school play, every parent-teacher meeting, and every Sunday service despite a schedule that would have broken most people. Her colleagues marvelled. Her children simply thought that was what mothers did.
Outside medicine, Anitha was a passionate Carnatic vocalist who had trained under the late Smt. Kamala Subramanian for twelve years. She sang at church every Sunday, at concerts occasionally, and at home constantly. Her family says the house is very quiet now.
Dr. Anitha Susan Thomas passed on 11 August 2024 after a brief and aggressive illness — a cruel irony for a woman who had spent her career fighting disease in children. She was 45. She is survived by her husband Jacob, her children Elias and Ruth, and the hundreds of small patients whose lives are longer and better because of her.
Amma had a rule: no matter how late she got home — and sometimes it was midnight — she would come to our rooms before she slept and put her hand on our heads. Every single night. Elias and I used to pretend to be asleep just to feel her there. We are adults now and I still sometimes wake up reaching for a hand that isn't there. She will never know what that ritual meant to us. Or maybe she does.
Bangalore Baptist Hospital Chapel, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560024
Kalpalli Cemetery, Kaggadasapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560093
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