{"id":96441,"date":"2019-12-15T17:29:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T00:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96441"},"modified":"2019-12-15T17:29:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T00:29:56","slug":"an-unforgettable-matriarch-of-the-family-muriel-weeraratna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/15\/an-unforgettable-matriarch-of-the-family-muriel-weeraratna\/","title":{"rendered":"An unforgettable matriarch of the family – Muriel Weeraratna"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tudor Wijeratne<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Muriel Weeraratna, my aunty, died on October 21 this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the eldest nephew among the living I would like to share these thoughts of a gracious lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty\n Muriel was the daughter of Don Elaris Weerasiri, only son of Don \nTheodoris Weerasiri, a leading jewellery and gem merchant at Chatham \nStreet, Fort at the beginning of the last century. Don Elaris played for\n the Royal College 1st XI Cricket team when the S. Thomas\u2019 College, \nMount Lavinia cricket team was captained by D. S. Senanayake who later \nwent on to become the first Prime Minister of Ceylon, and later for the \nSinhalese Sports Club (SSC) alongside D. S. \u2018Twentieth Century \nImpressions of Ceylon\u2019 by Arnold Wright (1908) carries a detailed \naccount of Don Theodoris Weerasiri and his business, with a photograph \nof the young Don Elaris Weerasiri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He married Nancy Thenuwara, \nwhose parents donated the present land where the Sri Lanka Maha Pirivena\n is situated at Vipulasena Mawatha, Maradana, also known as the Ode \nPansala\u201d. This temple gained wide prominence, when the second head of \nthe Temple Ven. Baddegama Wimalawansa Thero, became a Buddhist and \nNational Leader in the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a family of 12 children, my \nmother Violet was the eldest. Aunty Muriel was the sixth in the family, \nwhich consisted apart from her, of six girls and five boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty Muriel studied at Clifton Girls\u2019 School and Musaeus College, Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\n a proposal made in 1947, she married Dharmasena Weeraratna, a \nbusinessman from Galle (P.J. Weeraratna & Sons), at Stafford House, \nMaradana belonging to her grandmother Philomena Thenuwara, with the \nPolice Band in attendance. I was present at the wedding. After the \nmarriage she went to reside at Wackwella Road, Galle, to run the \nbusiness carried on for four generations by her husband and his brother \nAsoka. In 1948 they came to Maradana and opened a shop called \nP.J.Weeraratna and Sons at No. 592 Second Division Maradana. In the late\n 1950s and early 1960s, P.J. Weeraratna and Sons were the leading wrist \nwatch importers in Sri Lanka. They had about 60 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \nrefurbished shop was opened on September 9, 1948 by Prime Minister D.S. \nSenanayake, and several other distinguished guests, namely, Sir John \nKotalawela, C.W.W. Kannangara and Victor Ratnayaka, MP for Deniyaya. At \nthat time she was residing at Avondale Road, Maradana, where the two \nsons Senaka and Tissa were born and later admitted to Royal College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was about 16, during the weekends Aunty Muriel used to give me money to take her sons to see Tarzan and western films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n 1952, her brother-in-law Asoka Weeraratna founded the German Dharmaduta\n Society with Dudley Senanayake as the Patron. Asoka later went on to \nestablish the Berlin Vihara having bought the property \u2018Das \nBuddhistische Haus\u2019 in Berlin \u2013 Frohnau, from the relatives of Dr. Paul \nDahlke, a leading German Buddhist. The Buddhist Mission to Germany is \nstill functioning with monks from Sri Lanka in residence, coordinated by\n her son Tissa, who is resident in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty Muriel\u2019s \nhusband Dharmasena and his brother, Asoka, gave up business in the mid \u2013\n 1960s in order to engage in nationalist and Buddhist revival work. \nAsoka Weeraratna established the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Meditation \nCentre in 1967, and entered the Order of the Sangha as Ven. Mitirigala \nDhammanissanti Thera in 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was while living in Australia \nthat Senaka was informed at the beginning of 2000 that his father felt \nbreathless at times, \u2018hathi danawa\u2019. Senaka then decided to return to \nSri Lanka to care for his parents in their old age. His father died on \nMay 18, 2001. He stayed back to look after his mother giving up a \nrelatively comfortable life in Australia. He was present by the side of \nhis father and mother at the time when they passed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1994,\n Aunty Muriel was taken to Germany along with my sister Rani by her son \nTissa for an eye operation and  she stayed for nearly three months, \ntravelling in Europe during her convalescence.  As her two children were\n then abroad Aunty Muriel looked after her brother Robert and sister \nFlorence till their deaths. Aunty Muriel also looked after with great \ndevotion an adopted son and adopted brother to Senaka and Tissa, named \nPathmasiri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty Muriel was well versed in painting, writing \nEnglish poetry and making artificial flowers and gardening \u2013 growing \ncannas. All photos on the walls in her house had her sayings written at \nthe bottom. There was poetry written on the inner walls in prominent \nplaces inside the house. She and her husband were Sai Baba devotees and \nvisited India on three occasions and brought back Vibuthi (holy ash) and\n gifts from him. They used to have regular bajans at their house in \nBambalapitiya with other Sai devotees. In Colombo, from 1949 she stayed \nat Avondale Road, Maradana and came to Bethesda Place, Bambalapitiya in \n1958.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was a vegetarian and an animal lover. She had four \nferocious dogs and nine cats, all living inside the house. People in the\n neighbourhood and  others used to throw unwanted animals into their \ncompound knowing very well that they would be well looked after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\n also used to write  newspaper articles on topics related to Buddhism, \nanimal rights, keeping the city clean, etc. She and her husband were the\n most loving couple in our family. Though it was an arranged marriage, \nthey were well suited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty Muriel was very popular among the \nfamily members. She was in contact with all her relations living in \nvarious parts of the world up to the third generation. Almost every \nweek, she would give an update of the kith and kin and country affairs \nwith humour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did this until about two months before her \ndeath. She used to continue her calls giving an update interpreted by \nher son Senaka. She was a loving  aunt to all of us. Though she was a \nSai devotee she was also a practising Buddhist in her daily affairs, \nkind to everyone including animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 22, her younger \nsister Dr. Theodora Munasinghe passed away and she visited the funeral \nhouse to pay her final respects, even though she was in frail health. I \nmet her two days later and she told me Putha, I am next\u201d. I told her \nnot to be afraid that she will be able to reach her century . \nUnfortunately, forty days short of her 99th birthday which fell on \nNovember 30 this year, she passed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May she attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tudor Wijeratne<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tudor Wijeratne Muriel Weeraratna, my aunty, died on October 21 this year. As the eldest nephew among the living I would like to share these thoughts of a gracious lady. Aunty Muriel was the daughter of Don Elaris Weerasiri, only son of Don Theodoris Weerasiri, a leading jewellery and gem merchant at Chatham Street, Fort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}