On a bicycle made for his mother
We met them on the eighth day of their journey, around 12 noon when they were approaching Waligama town in Matara. Around 3 p.m. on the same day, the Sunday Times once again spotted them in Matara town, and at that point they were some 125 km from their final destination – Kataragama.
A journey of love: Suneth and Magilin. Pic by Susantha Liyanawatte
There is something remarkable about their journey- which started from Pahala Giribawa Weragala off Anuradhapura that attracted passers-by to stop for a while to have a few words with them…to give them food and money.
Carrying his 73-year old mother on a wheelchair that was tied to his push bicycle, 47-year- old Suneth Jayawickrema was taking his mother on a pilgrimage to Kataragama. “It is a difficult journey – being exposed to the scorching sun and pouring rain from time to time,” says R. H. Magilin, the mother sitting in her wheelchair.
Unable to articulate clearly due to his stammer, Suneth lets his mother do the talking, but takes off the glove he is wearing on his right hand to show us the blisters he has got, after having cycled for days and days.
A mother of three daughters and four sons who has toiled hard to find them three square meals a day, working in coir mills and selling vegetables, Magilin says Suneth is her third son and it is to fulfil her dream to visit Kataragama to pray for her recovery and make a vow that Suneth undertook this difficult task. “In February this year too, my son and I undertook this journey to make a vow as I need to get back on my feet. Only divine intervention can help me with that,” says Magilin with tears. It was by going to save her daughter from getting beaten up that she had a fall and broke her leg.
Connecting a wheelchair on to a modified push cycle, Suneth has created this mode of transportation to take his mother around in the village be it to the doctor, to the temple or to see her relatives. Maglin says she greatly appreciate the courage and the love of her son to have thought about undertaking this difficult journey.
“We brought enough clothes, bed sheets and two pillows for the journey. In the night we take shelter in a nearby ambalama, bus stand or at a door step of a closed shop and start travelling from the wee hours in the morning,” says Magilin who put her hands together to say ‘Budusarani’ before they continued on their journey.