The bright pink frilly dress was lovingly laid out on the cold hard metal slab.
On the floor next to it - a long white coffin. Oversized for the three-year-old that was finally going to be put in it.
Levi Samuel had been waiting for this moment for exactly two years.
Well, "waiting" implies hopeful expectation, so it wouldn't really be the right word.
Levi hadn't wanted to say goodbye.
His niece and her father were among the over 800 passengers on board the 23,000 tonne MV Princess of the Stars when it sank in stormy weather off the central Philippines in June 2008.
It was one of the worst sea disasters in the Philippines.
The remains were only now turned over to Levi by authorities. And he is one of the more fortunate ones.
![[QODLink]](http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2012/5/24/2012524105149565734_16.jpg "The Brotherhood and Mubarak")
