Rev Sr Maryanne Fernando:

Unique personality

Rev Sr Maryanne Fernando was one of the daughters of Benny and Florrie Fernando of Negombo. She had two brothers and six sisters and the only surviving sibling is the youngest of the family, Magda (Bubby).

Sr Maryanne was known among the family by her pet name “Beba.”

Sr Maryanne lost her father when she was young. Their mother had a tough time bringing up this large family.

As time went by (in 1948) Beba decided to join the Vineyard of the Lord and be part of the little sisters of poor. She had her postulant training in India and once she took her vows, she served in many countries. She was known as Rev Sr Stanislaus.

As a young boy, I used to write to “Mother Beba Anta” which was the way her nieces and nephews started addressing her. I first saw her in 1964 when I was nine years old, when she visited us in Ceylon. Of course we had seen many pictures of her in her religious habit, with only her face to be seen.

She was a strong person and I could remember when my grandmother died she had the courage to clean up the body before the undertakers came for embalming. No doubt she had got this training as she was tending for the aged in the convents she served.

Her love for children was terrific she was a lover of cricket too and her liking for the game was so great that while watching a match on TV she would do the commentaries for the others watching with her. This was unique for a Rev Sr. Her favourite team was Sri Lanka always and she wanted them to win.

She was the favourite aunt of everyone. While serving in the UK, with the permission of the Sister Superior of the little sisters of the poor she joined another convent run by the benedictine nuns also looking after the old. As this was a new congregation and had only a few sisters. Mother Garson the then Superior was very happy with her move.

When a branch of this was opened in Sri Lanka she was transferred to the convent over here. She spent almost 20 years in the UK but never wanted to change her Sri Lankan passport. In total she served the Lord for 50 plus years looking after the sick and the old.

Her last few years of service were at the convent in Ja-Ela known as “The Lawn”. She spent a lot of time with the preparation of the Eucharistic services in church. Once she retired and was not having the best of health, she was brought to the convent in Moratuwa the “Melville”. She was looked after very well by the sisters.

In August she had visited Wattala for the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim. Being at my sister’s place she was not feeling quite well and had been on bed most of the time. She had to told everyone on that day that this might be her last visit to Wattala.

True to her word she took ill a few days later and was hospitalised. After many tests she was taken back to the convent where her health deteriorated day by day. On September 7, 2010 she was called to rest by her creator.

Mother Beba Anta, may your soul Rest in Peace in the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Loving nephew

W Wickramasinghe:

Leaves a shining path

A shining path. This is exactly what he left for us. Having tiptoed on this land for exactly 83 years and 10 months Weerawansa Wickramasinghe (Wicks to his friends) left us on August 23, 2011.

Born on October 23, 1927 in Yatanwala, his life took root in Ruwanwella.

He was an ardent leftist, having great admiration for Dr. N M Perera. Being the sixth of a family of eight, he excelled in his studies and passed the Senior School Certificate examination with flying colours, opening himself to a career in the field of education. He got married to Amara, a teacher from Gampaha in 1958 and proceeded to bring up a family of three girls and a boy, who was the youngest and the author of this appreciation. He made Kiribathgoda his new hometown and spent the last half a century of his life amidst the friendly neighbourhood.

Having given his fullest to any place of work, an opportunity opened for him to enter the Ceylon Administrative Service in 1973.

I remember his transfer to the Ministry of Education as I became a minor celebrity in school.

Many teachers came to see me to get some favours from the ‘Ministry’. Around the same time, I started failing miserably in my English.

He took very serious note of this and introduced me to the wonderful world of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

My father suggested that I translate the editorial of the Ceylon Daily News to Sinhala and the editorial of Dinamina to English. It was tough and forced me into a love hate relationship with the Oxford Dictionary. That was his way. Very gentle. Utterly effective.

He loved trees and plants and was an avid horticulturist. He also got enrolled in a programme of the Ceylon Tobacco Company and transformed part of our front lawn into a beautiful orchid garden. He got all four children involved in some aspect of this new venture.

Being the strong Buddhist, he didn’t want to kill the pests.

He preferred them to be taken out from his orchid garden. He offered me one rupee for a snail / slug and gave me a tin to collect them. He told me to count them in his presence, with agreed fee being paid thereafter.

Out of my undiplomatic mouth came the suggestion “what if I show you the same collection of snails and slugs twice?” He replied “I think you will not do that”. This simple dialogue would haunt me in all my future engagements and formed a strong aversion to all manner of corruption.

Apart from bringing up the family, he had to shoulder a much bigger responsibility of bringing up a new school at Kiribathgoda Located so close to Colombo, attracting students to this new school was problematic, and my mother had to seek ‘inside help’ from the Ministry.

Father obliged, and managed to provide basic necessities to this school, which has now metamorphosed into a leading girl’s school in the style of the Vihara Maha Devi Balika Vidyalaya.

This he did with enthusiasm, and no one, even the founder principal - my mother — took notice of this generous and silent support. He was so very kind to his children and grandchildren and all others who he met during his entire life.

He would offer his help, which would in the end serve to change entire lives. He forgave people unconditionally and provided relief to a large number of distressed government servants, by stretching the rule book to the limits.

He was a living example of a clean officer, who had the entire population of teachers turning up at his office to get transfers, salary anomalies corrected and thousand other tasks. My father opted to help each one of them and would only smile at the beneficiaries who showered him with profuse thanks.

He also used his influence to provide employment opportunities to anyone who was in need. This he didn’t give up even in his eighties.

He believed in a just society, and hoped for a better future for our country. He carried a strong view about the masses, and looked forward to a day where they will be treated fairly.

Later, his leftist ideals changed markedly to nationalistic ideals, with the advent of LTTE’s brutality. He was a happy man to witness the defeat of terrorism.

Having bid farewell to a loving father one month ago, I have already started to feel the emptiness, in a world without his gentle advice and guidance. As a house full of teenagers, we provided enough headaches to him. He would never dictate to us but gently guide the message home.

There is no question about the void he left in our lives. But he also left many other things.

He has provided us necessary life skills to go beyond where he stopped. He has imparted a strong value system which is a rare commodity these days.

He has left a shining path for anyone to tread; the path to success, which can be trod silently, without dirtying oneself.

I know many of those who knew my father would agree with me, that this shining path is the most important thing he left for us.

May he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana.

Harsha Wickramasinghe

Daphne Lord:

Dedicated teacher

The year 1992 Sinhala/Tamil New Year dawned with a tragedy to me and my children, when I lost my husband under tragic circumstances. I was praying to God to show me a path for my family, now left at the mercy of God. It was then that I met the Founder/Chairperson of DLS School of Elocution. Aunty Daphne was looking for an assistant to support her in the day to day administration of her school. She was seated all alone in her office room listening to my story. She consented to employ me and I started working for her immediately. My association with Aunty continued there after for almost two decades, until I left for Oman in 2011.

She was fondly called Aunty Lord by all 24 members of the staff and thousands of past and present students, who obtained the light of English knowledge and skill in the perfect way.

She was not keen in earning money. Her motto was to give her knowledge to those who needed it. She wanted to pass the education which she obtained from the Trinity College of London to the next generation. Due to her untiring efforts, thousands of her students are shining in various carriers, here and abroad.

She was a devout Catholic and helped lots of charities. Those who came to her for various help, never returned empty handed or in dismay.

She loved to involve herself in Church work and always prepared the Sunday liturgy herself. She always helped people wholeheartedly in writing liturgy as and when requested.

She faced her problems courageously and believed in God every minute she lived.

She always encouraged others to come up in life and did not hold any bitter feelings towards anyone, even when others spoke wrong of her, I am convinced that it is due to her chaste nature that she did not have any illness, in spite of having all her favourite food and deserts – and God too showed her His loving kindness by taking her back to Himself, in the most peaceful manner.

In my opinion instead of being called “Aunty” she deserves to be called “Mother”. There is no doubt that she is now safely resting in the arms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Lily Jesudason

Rienzie Gunaratne:

Talented educationist

I heard a very shocking and a sad news on April 2,2011 that one of my great teachers, Rienzie Gunaratne (72) has passed away.

He was by profession a lecturer at Teacher’s Training College, Maharagama. When I was in Grade 8 I joined his English classes. Soon I found his teaching was very methodical and inspiring.

Two things that made lasting impact on us were, the public speaking training sessions he conducted in English language classes and great lifetime lessons he taught us.

Apart from the subject curriculum, he took an innovative approach in improving public speaking skills of his students by having prepared speeches and news diary sessions where we got a chance to use our creativity and imagination skills while learning techniques.

This practice helped me in many ways during my university life.

The second and the most important impact we had from him was the universal lessons we learned from him in his literature class.

He was not satisfied with the formal curriculum and genuinely wanted us to learn the beauty of literature where he had selected a valuable set of poems from great old literature and taught us the hidden meaning relating to real life, in a very convincing manner. Even today, those poems help me to be inspired, be happy during the difficult times in life.

Sir, the memories of you will last with us till our deaths.

Hasini gunasinghe