As the pandemic raged last year, she turned to weaving, sewing cloth bags and face masks during lockdown periods, trying to keep her mind off the MH370 tragedy and to earn extra pocket money.
But the events that unfolded after MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, keep replaying in her mind, as well as in the minds of her four children aged 21 to 36.
Gonzales, 58, said her friend had called her that day telling her about a missing Malaysia Airlines flight. Later, she found out that Patrick was on duty on board that flight. Gomes, then 55, had been a flight supervisor with the national airline for 35 years.
Seven years on, she said she has yet to have any closure and often thinks about the last moments she spent with Patrick before he left for the flight to Beijing.
Gonzales said the night before the fateful flight, he had asked his children to take him to the airport, instead of using a pick-up service provided by the airline.
She said Patrick had even tried to lure his kids by offering to pay them the “full taxi fare”, which was later refused. She said the children now kept replaying that scene in their minds as it was the last time they saw him.
“People keep asking me, it has been so many years, why can’t you move on? I say, if it is your husband, father or relative, would you say that?
“How do we move on when there is no definite answer about how MH370 went down? There is no closure. Whatever that is not settled will always remain there,” she said.
Gonzales said she and her youngest son had moved out of their home in Section 5, Petaling Jaya, to a rented home in Taman Tun Dr Ismail for a change.
“We have not even given Patrick a send-off or proper prayers. Everything remains a question mark. I am not asking people to go underwater to search for the plane again. We, like the other families affected, want to know what actually happened,” she said.
She said after all these years, reports on MH370 have not been clear. There has been no conclusion on how the flight had gone missing, whether as a result of negligence or other factors.
“At least in the case of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, we knew it was shot down. In the case of MH370, we want to know if there was a fault with the plane, at least.
“Aviation safety is important, something needs to be done. Don’t just show us debris which doesn’t mean anything,” said Gonzales, a former flight attendant.
She said it was also disappointing that there have been no updates on the missing flight and the resumption of ocean floor searches after parts of the southern Indian Ocean were swept for possible remnants of the Boeing jet.
“Nothing has been said by the government to date. I guess they just want to sweep it under the rug. So difficult to even get hold of the transport minister.
“We know there is a lot on their (government’s) plate. We have gone through three transport ministers in the past seven years. Can’t they tell us what is next? Why keep us hanging on like this? No one has spoken to us to give us an update (on the situation). The silence is deafening.”
The disappearance of the MAS Boeing 777 has become one of aviation’s greatest mysteries. The aircraft has yet to be found despite the longest and most expensive search mission in history.
The aircraft, carrying 239 people, vanished some 40 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It was piloted by Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a senior captain at the airline.
There have been several conspiracy theories regarding the disappearance of MH370, including Zaharie intentionally diverting the plane from its regular route after his last words “Good night. Malaysian 3-7-0” before the plane fell off the radar at 1.21am.
However, this theory has been rejected by Zaharie’s friends and other pilots.