APPRECIATIONS
View(s):Our dearly beloved Amma, it’s your 100th birth anniversary
Cecilia Pauline Gertrude Fernando (“Dottie”)
On November 22, you would be celebrating your 100th birthday at your heavenly abode amidst a choir of angels. Although you left us on January 9, 2007, we strongly feel that you still continue to guide all of us spiritually.
As a mother of five sons and one daughter, you together with our beloved Thaththa, nourished us spiritually and physically in a truly Catholic background amidst economic and other hardships. Your beloved mother (‘Ammamma’) who too was a very devoted Catholic was staying with us and was a tower of strength to assist you in managing our large family. Many a time, your only sister (Podi Mamma) also a devout Catholic extended a vital helping hand. All of you nurtured us in a religious background to make us God-fearing, disciplined citizens.
We cannot forget those childhood days, when you woke us up early morning to attend Holy Mass daily; reminded us to recite the evening ‘Angelus’ and gathered us thereafter in front of the consecrated picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to recite the Holy Rosary and other prayers as a family, before dinner. As a devout Catholic who strongly believed in reaching Jesus Christ through the intercession of his Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, you were very particular in seeing us wearing a ‘miraculous medal’. You and Thaththa fostered peace and unity in our family by ensuring that we always enjoyed our meals together, around one table.
You never failed to visit the church daily. We are what we are today in answer to your prayers and the example you set. Whenever we had a family occasion that merited celebration by Holy Mass, we depended on you to prepare the ‘Prayers of the faithful’.
Whenever we boys got into scuffles or misunderstandings with our schoolmates, you never blamed the other but found fault with us, as you and Thaththa always believed that parents should first correct their own children before trying to correct others.
You also ensured that we carry a copy of the ‘Prayer of the Holy Crib’ with us, as a spiritual guide against sin and evil. It was one of your hobbies to neatly fold and seal copies of this powerful prayer in polythene and distribute them freely among known people in the area.
You also enriched us with knowledge of the affairs of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and overseas by arranging to buy the Catholic weekly- ‘Gnanartha Pradeepaya’ while distributing copies to people in the neighbourhood as a member of the Sacred Heart Society. As an active parishioner, you helped several needy persons in the parish with a generous heart and by your prayers on their behalf.
Even after we got married and started life on our own, you continued to render that spiritual guidance.
We thank our heavenly Father for rewarding you and Thaththa with the rare privilege and joy of becoming the parents of a Catholic priest of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation in 1975 who was later ordained as the Bishop of Badulla in 1997.
For us, you were the epitome of great common sense, simplicity, humility, calmness and Christian devotion. Your pleasant smile and helpful attitude made you a symbol of a loving Catholic mother looked upon with respect by your neighbours, relatives and parishioners alike.
We know that you will not come back to us physically. But, the spiritual nourishment that you and Thaththa together, infused into our hearts and souls will remain with us and our families as our greatest gift from God received through your example and your prayers.
Bernard Fernando
Remembering our Ammi/Aththammi brings us great joy
RUKMANI NISSANKA
November 11 brought many vivid memories of chocolates, cheese, cashew, jujubes, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Achebe, Sarathchandra, yards of poetry said out loud from a brilliant, open and the most modern of minds, of kindness, of irreverent humour and the most difficult of crosswords and Sudokus. This November 11th was Ammi’s 85th birthday.
Although it’s one year and four months since she passed away, Ammi’s kindness, love of all (from family to friends, from colleagues to students, to employees to strangers, from dinosaurs to the smallest of ants) still keeps us company; the fullness of her life was such that her life continues to fill us with joy, laughter and light.
As we remember her and wonder at our luck to have her as our Ammi /Aththammi , we also thank all family, friends and students who let her know that she was loved, who visited her, who sent her treats and who remember her for all what she was.
Osadi, Kamani, Harshi, Swairie,
Parami & Akalanka
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