Remembering Namal Wickremage

By Kshalini Nonis
As I sit down to write this about my Dearest Aunty Namal, I am filled with the wonderful memories of her, which time and space can’t erase. She was one of my Dearest childhood friends, Diko’s (Indika) mum and I knew her for over 40 years!
One of the earliest memories I have of her was when we as Diko’s classmates had ‘spent the days’ at their lovely home in Mutwal, playing hide-and-seek, climbing trees etc. In 1983, the family went to the UK for a few months I would write long letters to Diko and Aunty Namal used to say that I should be a Journalist – how apt those words were.  
When I entered Journalism in 1993, Aunty Namal was someone who was very supportive of me and encouraged me to follow a career in my chosen field and would read my articles.

During the time we were teenagers and wanted to go for the ‘Royal-Thomian’ and ‘Bradby’, we were not given permission to go without a chaperone. We all wanted Aunty Namal and she would accompany us for these events! 
The home of Aunty Namal and Uncle Robert was an open home to everyone and they had a marriage made in heaven.  The two of them together with their three children: Enoka (whom I call Akkie) Lakmal (Aiya to me) and Diko were a very loving and united family. This closeness was something that extended to the extended family as well and Aunty Namal treated Uncle Robert’s family as her own. 
In our early twenties, Aiya used to take us to the Rowing Club often for dinner and thereafter we would all go back to their home and spend the night, chatting all night long on their rooftop at their home in Nawala.
When Diko got into the University of Colombo to do a degree Aunty Namal was very proud of her especially when she graduated.
In 1998 when I got a scholarship to Australia she was genuinely happy for me and wished me well.
As many of us in our close group of friends married a little late and ‘alarm bells’ started ringing in my late mum and she used to talk about us and say that it’s time to get us married! Her joy knew no bounds when Diko married Prasanna.
I recall how when Mama and I went to give them their wedding gift my mum told her “you didn’t have to invite the two of us too” (my dad and her) for the wedding to which she replied “You are like family to us.”
When I returned to Sri Lanka from the UK where I lived briefly and went through a tough time, she was someone who was there for me and was concerned about me. 
Gradually when her health deteriorated she was showered with much love and care by her children, their spouses and grand-children. 
When my mum passed away three years ago, Aunty Namal was also one person I truly missed, not just at the funeral but also, I know that she would have been there for me, comforted me and helped me to overcome the shock of her sudden passing.
Aunty Namal was a very warm, loving and caring person who had no bitterness or anger towards anyone. She was there for me in both good and bad times.
She is now in a much better place resting with her Heavenly Father watching over her loved ones and someday they will all be reunited in that nearer shore – this is the assurance and promise that we as Christians have. 
So, this 90th Birthday tribute honours a truly wonderful person who was a loving and caring wife, a devoted mother and a doting grandmother. A person who was adored by all.
And to me, she is someone who I look  up to, love and respect, a friend, confidante and mother figure.
Happy 90th Birthday in heaven, my Dearest Aunty Namal.
May your soul Rest in Peace.