Appreciations
View(s):She was the light that shone in our home
Manel Ruth Fernando
My mother Manel went to be with the Lord Jesus on November 19, 2018. She had a chest infection but she was sick for only a few weeks. She was 89 years old at the time of her demise. She seemed perfectly fine on the day she passed away. She was talking and joking with me when she suddenly closed her eyes.
I will always treasure fond memories of Amma. I can never wish for a better mother than her. She was there whenever I needed her to share all my joys and sorrows. She was the light that shone in our home.
She had very happy memories of her childhood in her ancestral home in Melmere in Moratuwa. She often spoke of how much she enjoyed playing with her cousins in the neighbourhood. She had her education at Princess of Wales Moratuwa. She was the youngest of three sisters.
Following her marriage to my father Dr. Riley Fernando in 1955 she moved to Kurunegala where my father lived and had established his medical practice. Amma did mention to me that her happiest years were spent in Kurunegala. It is clearly evidenced from the many photo albums that she had maintained in those years. Amma was active in the parish of the Cathedral Church of Christ the King, Kurunegala and engaged in many social service projects in Kurunegala where she worked to help the poor. She was also the President of the YWCA in Kurunegala.
Amma’s greatest love was her home and garden which included caring for the pets. Her culinary skills were par excellence. She had told us that she was a cookery teacher immediately prior to her marriage and that she gave classes in cookery at Walukarama Road, Colombo 3 where her family lived following their transition from Melmere. Her greatest joy was preparing the tastiest food for our family. She was a great hostess and she just loved to entertain friends and family. Another great love was to tend her beautiful garden.
She cared very well for our family especially for my brother Malin throughout his long years of ill health right upto the time of his demise. She always said that she considered it to be her duty by God.. She had an unshakeable faith and trust in God. She made many sacrifices for our family but we never heard her complain.
She was wonderful wife to my father. I am quite sure that if my father were to live his life over again he would want Amma as his wife. Their marriage was arranged by their parents and they were like a pair of love birds. My father’s sudden passing in 2003 broke her heart. I will always have memories of my parents waltzing together in perfect rhythm at social gatherings. Amma was always very elegantly dressed with a matching necklace.
She had an excellent command of both English and Sinhala. I would seek her help on many an occasion to improve my writing. She would make a speech in public just off-the-cuff on many occasions when she served as the President of the Dehiwala Housewives Society. She displayed her business acumen when she managed a very successful pharmaceutical business for a few years from our home in Dehiwala. This was following the departure of our family from Kurunegala in 1972. She and my brother Malin joined my father in England for a couple of years and they all returned home together following the completion of my father’s work in 1978.
It was in 1995 that we moved our family home to Hotel Road, Mount Lavinia. I think this move brought back happy memories of times she spent in Kurunegala. Just like in Kurunegala she loved tending the garden. She moved into our home next door to hers following the demise of my brother in 2014. We were privileged to have her spend the final years of her life in our home. My son Treshan was the apple of her eye. We miss her presence with us.
Goodbye sweet Amma. May flights of angels whisk you away to your well-deserved rest. May you rest in peace and rise in glory on the day of Christ’s coming.
Rohan
You were my loving second mother
Oslin Wimala Seneviratne
It was really a very sad occasion for all family members, relatives and residents of Meevitigammana in Attanagalla, when Oslin Wimala Seneviratne (nee Alagiyawanna) bade farewell at the venerable age of 93 years. The large gathering present during the funeral bore ample testimony of their respect and love for her.
Mrs. O.W Seneviratne and her husband G.W.G Seneviratne who predeceased her in 1998, were blessed with one daughter Namalika and three sons, Palitha, Jayantha, and Nalaka. By virtue of my marriage to Jayantha in 1980, I had the good fortune of not only joining the Seneviratne clan of Attanagalla but also more importantly the very lovable parents of my husband.
It was during the very early stage of my marriage when I had to adjust to living without my parents and siblings in Haputale and get acclimatized to a new life in Colombo that I realized the kind, caring and cheerful disposition of the senior Seneviratnes, which gave me the lovely feeling of having a second father and mother in Colombo. As a newcomer to the Seneviratne family, it was undoubtedly Amma’s loving kindness and care that made me feel at ease and at home always. I would always with much love and due respect consider her as my second mother. She was a tower of strength to all of us.
I am lucky and fortunate and so are the other daughters-in-law, Krishanthi, Jayanthi, and the one and only son-in-law Lakshman Jayawardhana, to be those happy individuals with a second mother, who loved and cared for them unconditionally. She never considered for a moment that we were partners of her children.
Amma would always listen to us and offered guidance and advice whenever we needed them. She never told me that I was doing something wrong or forced her opinion about childrearing, housekeeping or for that matter on any other issue. In short she let me be me and this applied to the others as well. She always encouraged happiness among all our families and treated all of us alike.
There are so many others, who will miss her, especially the vast number of residents in Meevitigammana and Urapola, to whom she was very kind and helpful in so many ways. She continued with the social work her late husband had done without any fanfare or publicity. Whoever visited her had a cup of tea or a meal. Amma would always bless them with “Theruwan Saranai”.
Amma was a devout Buddhist and was involved in the lay-societies of temples in the area. The Poson poya Dansala at Abayagiri Viharaya, considered one of the best in Anuradhapura was initiated and organized by Thaththa and Amma in 1992. Even after Thaththa’s death in 1998, Amma saw to the continuation of this momentous event along with family members completing 26 years in 2018.
Amma was devoted to her grandchildren and took turns to stay with each family for a few weeks, when she was physically fit. She was proud and happy to see her seven great grandchildren and “Muththamma” was their favourite visitor.
Though we know that you are no more with us, yet the very pleasant and unforgettable memories that you have left behind will remain for as long as we live.
May you attain the supreme bless of Nirvana
Mekala Seneviratne
Her bright smile and kind deeds will never dim in our memories
Dinusha Fernando
Our youngest daughter Dinusha was a gift from God on January 13, 1987 to both of us and to her elder sister Hirusha and brother Hirushke. She was called back to her eternal home on January 15, 2016 just one night after her 29th birthday.
Her life journey is a story of amazing faith, endurance and love. She had incurable SLE (Systemic lupus erythematosus) to begin with and later on her kidneys failed and then her main heart valve was damaged. Following heart surgery, Dinu had a stroke. As if everything Dinu was bearing wasn’t enough, she contracted swine flu and then she contracted pneumonia. The last thing she needed was to find a lump in her breast, but that’s exactly what happened.
Throughout Dinu’s earthly journey she knew that God was her rock and only He could heal her pain. This young, beautiful soldier of God was in so much pain but never uttered a cross word to any of us. She only let her love for her family show. Her love for God was always evident and shone through like a bright light on those dark days.
Just 22 months after Dinu was born we as a family went through turmoil, but our faith in God was strengthened by the spiritual support of the Methodist church we attended regularly and the divine ministry of Dev Suwa Sevawa.
In August 2009, Dinusha was diagnosed with incurable SLE…Lupus disease. Although she was incredibly sick, she was also a very brave young girl with a strong will and a mind of her own. When she caught Chamara’s eye at her workplace she was totally honest with him. She told him about her Lupus which was in remission at the time.
On December 17, 2012, I walked her down the aisle of Golden Rose hotel, reminiscing about the first time I saw her walk, but she wasn’t that toddler anymore. She was a grown up woman. As she walked down the aisle holding my arm, she sang the words, “How can I say thanks for the things you have done.”
Things looked good for the young couple until May 9, 2014. Dinu returned from work that day complaining of pain in her abdomen and spine. Tragedy struck the family when we learned that both her kidneys had failed. In March 2015, we were told she needed to have a kidney transplant.
Dinu had developed a theme of life. It was, “The circumstances of your life don’t and shouldn’t describe or dictate the quality of your personality.” Dinu didn’t let these new and trying circumstances change any aspect of her character or her life. Though she herself was sick and in pain, she still took time to visit if a friend or relative was ill. Though she was in need, she was always there to help others when needed. She always had time to talk to her friends. Dinu’s Bible theme verse was Col 4:2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”
Dinu knew that only God could strengthen, support, and protect her as well as supply her with all good things in pain and in joy. Dinu carried her cross with dignity. Through times of severe suffering, she still found ways to enjoy her life.
By January 9, 2016, Dinu felt the Lord had sent her a message calling her home. When Rev. Asiri Perera, President of the Methodist Church, visited Dinu that day, she told him clearly that she wanted to go to God’s house…she had been called home.
The following morning, Dinu’s family was gathered around her bedside. We were all there: Roshani and I, her loving husband Chamara, her brother and sister, and her brother/sister-in-law. She bid “goodbye” to all of us. God gave us one last birthday with our loving daughter on January 13, 2016. On the night of the 14th, Dinu was surprised by being able to listen to her favourite artist, Keerthi Pasquel singing to her by her bedside.
No one realized, except may be Dinu, that it was her last night on earth.
Dinu touched the lives and hearts of many souls across the world. The spirit of our loving daughter, a brave solder of God, will live on through every act of kindness she ever performed and thought. Her bright loving smile will never dim in the memories of whose lives she touched.
Premakumar and Roshani Fernando