They left home together, took their child to school and shared what should have been an ordinary family journey.
But William and Alinafe Chimutu never made it back to Lilongwe.
The husband and wife died in a motorcycle crash at Dowa Turn-off after reportedly leaving their child at Mponela 1 Primary School in Dowa District.
The couple had travelled to Mponela together as part of arrangements involving their child.
Photographs taken during the journey show William and Alinafe leaving Lilongwe and later standing together with their child in Mponela.
Those pictures, ordinary family moments captured before the tragedy, now carry a heartbreaking meaning.
They are among the final memories of a family that was together just hours before everything changed.
After leaving Mponela, William and Alinafe reportedly climbed onto their motorcycle and began their journey back to Lilongwe.
They never reached home.
At the Dowa Turn-off, their motorcycle collided with a vehicle, killing them both.
For their child, the pain is difficult to imagine.
A journey that began with being taken to school ended with the loss of both parents.
There will be no familiar faces waiting at home. No parents to ask how school went. No William and Alinafe to make the next family journey together.
Instead, the photographs from Mponela now remain as painful reminders of the parents who were there, together, only moments before tragedy separated them forever.
Their deaths have left relatives, friends and community members struggling to come to terms with a loss that came without warning.
The exact circumstances that led to the collision were not immediately established.
But beyond the questions surrounding the crash is a family now facing a painful reality, two parents left home to fulfil an ordinary responsibility and never returned.
William and Alinafe’s final journey was supposed to end in Lilongwe.
Instead, it became the journey that changed their child’s life forever.
