11 January 2024 12:00 am Views - 511
Last October was my first birthday without my grandson, daughter and son-in-law who had moved to Washington DC. My daughter asked me to organise a birthday party and invite my friends. Nuala was one of the first people I invited. As it was her birthday as well, she could not come for the service and dinner, but she came for the cake cutting. I will always treasure the pictures of Nuala cutting the cake, giving me a piece and having her own
The sad reality of death has removed from our earthly scene my dearest friend Nuala Thevathasan. It was when I was working at the Cathedral that the then Archdeacon of Colombo asked me to go and help at our Church in Jawatte. After the Service, my friend Nuala told me, “Fr. Sydney, from your sermon I got the impression that you haven’t still got over the death of your wife at an early age due to cancer”. I appreciated her perceptiveness! I saw Nuala often as she was my grandson’s Sunday School teacher.
A number of years ago in October, Nuala asked me if she could borrow my car because she wanted to get a cake on her birthday to give to the Sunday School teachers and children. From that year onwards, I always remember her birthday, which happened to be on the same day as mine!
Last October was my first birthday without my grandson, daughter and son-in-law who had moved to Washington DC. My daughter asked me to organise a birthday party and invite my friends. Nuala was one of the first people I invited. As it was her birthday as well, she could not come for the service and dinner, but she came for the cake cutting. I will always treasure the pictures of Nuala cutting the cake, giving me a piece and having her own.
I called her the next day, thanking her for coming and telling her how pretty and smart she looked with her few greys showing through her black hair! Nuala later asked about the birthday service and dinner. She promised to come by and see me.
Now that she is gone she can never come. On my birthday this October, there will be a vacant seat which can never be filled for she was a very special person.
Nuala was a very special and caring person. She visited me regularly, particularly after my grandson and family moved from Sri Lanka. She was so concerned about others and had such an impact on many people.
I knew her grandfather Conrad Felsinger, who was a well-known photographer. I related to Nuala that when I was working in Kandy, my wife wanted me to get her grandfather to take a photograph of our friend George Keyt and also of my daughter Malathy, my wife and myself. I understand that she and her brother were caring for their mother in Nugegoda and were living next to their married sister.
When we heard about Nuala’sdeath, my daughter, Malathy, told me that she was a person who made everybody happy wherever she went. My grandson told me how she had been his Sunday Schoolteacher. Her work as a Sunday School teacher did not stop with the teaching: when hersister was getting rid of children’s books, Nuala picked a book for my grandson.
Following the recent Sunday memorial service for Nuala, I called her sister, Lara, to express my condolences and let her know what a dear friend she was to me. I was too emotional on the call to even speak properly.
To Nuala’smother, her married sister and her family, her brother, her family in Australia, her mother’s sister in Canada, the Minister and her friends at the Kollupitiya Methodist Church, the Vicar at the Church in Jawatte, the teachers who taught with her and the children whom she taught, and those who worked with her at Verite and other places: you all can be certain of my continued love, concern and prayers.
May her soul rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen.
(Sydney Knight)