Auckland mother dies suddenly, family plan to return to India for farewell

A family have been left heartbroken after a mother-of-two mysteriously died in her sleep, just six months after moving to New Zealand.

Rupal Sharma, 40, had moved to Auckland with her husband, Umakant Sharma, and their two children, a girl, 10, and boy, 7, with dreams of becoming a science teacher.

She was unexpectedly found dead by her family early on Monday.

She had spent her final night surrounded by family.

Her husband and the couple’s two children were all sleeping in the same room on the night she died.

Their daughter had found her lying in bed and immediately alerted her father that she was unable to wake her mother.

Sharma had been getting ready for work in the bathroom.

“My daughter knocked ... I rushed outside and I asked her what happened. She said that mama is not responding,” he told the Herald.

“But she didn’t see [her] face was upside down.

“She thought she was sleeping.”

He said he rushed to the room and attempted to wake his wife and give her CPR.

“Then I saw her face. It was like white,” he said.

Sharma rushed her to hospital, where she was declared dead just 10 minutes later.

He said they did not yet know why she died, but further testing was being done.

Rupal Sharma passed away peacefully in her sleep at the young age of 40. Photo / Givealittle

Police said they attended North Shore Hospital on Monday morning in relation to a sudden death.

The death has been referred to the Coroner.

Now the family hope to bring Rupal to her home country of India for her final resting, a Givealittle post said.

Sharma told the Herald he moved to New Zealand in November last year, but his wife of 13 years and their children arrived on Kiwi soil just six months ago.

The family lived on Auckland’s North Shore and quickly came to love life in New Zealand.

“Everyone was happy. Me, my children, wife ... It was like a dream come true,” Sharma said.

“She was a person who wanted to visit places. She liked to cook food for family, she loved children, and she wanted to live a long life with her children,” he said.

Sharma said he was not aware of any health problems that may have led to this tragedy and described his late wife as active and “very healthy”.

Rupal Sharma was going to English classes and hoped to become a science teacher in New Zealand, just as she had done for the past 10 years, her husband said.

The “day before her last day, she was preparing for some educational things, some presentations and all that”, he said.

“We were happy. We went to [the] mall and then we did some shopping and we cooked food.

“We eat and then we sleep like hugging each other. We had a lovely night, and then I slept in the same room. My kids also, they were sleeping in the same room,” Sharma said.

“Our biggest wish is to send Rupal back home to India, so that her parents, family, and loved ones can see her one last time and perform her final rites.

“Being new here, we do not have the financial means to manage this on our own. The cost of repatriating her remains is overwhelming, and we humbly request your support during this unimaginably difficult time,“ he wrote on the Givealittle post..

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