Sheruni Ratnabalasuriar & Timothy Rowlands (Grandchild)
Entered
June 19, 2020
from Saginaw, Michigan - USA
Dearest Grandma (Achi),
With great sadness and hearts full of love, we say goodbye to you.
While we did not get to spend as much time with you as we’d have liked, we treasure countless memories that are flooding back today as we honor your life and legacy. One memory that has been coming back vividly was your first visit to us when we lived in Florida when I was about 8-9 years old. How fun it was to go on walks with you, where you'd tell us stories about living in Sri Lanka as we passed mango trees in Florida that reminded you of the ones you had back there. Of course, they would never be as tasty as the mangoes in Sri Lanka, you once said. This was a definitive fact I was able to verify for myself when we traveled back to visit Sri Lanka at age 12.
I remember one of the first visits to Canada back when we were still kids, crammed into a minivan to make the trek up from Florida to Ontario area. My sister and I were so excited to meet our aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma. I remember how hard grandma would hug me during naps and how safe and happy and safe that made me feel. It’s a memory I find myself returning to more and more as the world has become more volatile.
I remember her admonishments when I was completing homework to write more neatly and how she would correct our errors until we got it right. I rememberer being struck by how much we, as well as my mother and many others in our family, all loved to read, one looking up and seeing all of us at couches, chairs, and tables, with our noses in books. I realize now as an educator how your high regard for the written, printed, and spoken word deeply impacted me, something I am proud to carry on as an educator.
We grieve for your passing, the last of your generation in our family, a keeper of our history and our roots. I admire your passion for genealogy and family lineages, your deep knowledge of how people were connected to one another. It's a value I have tried to pass on to my family, friends, and students, this need for us to get to know our contexts, our histories, and the connections we forge with one another. I will miss your stories, you knew how to perfectly pace them whether spoken or written to keep the attention of the most fidgety little one or sleepy elder.
We are devastated that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused so much pain for many families. It is so hard not to be able to be with our loved ones, or be by their sides when they are ailing together due to the safety precautions and travel restrictions. More than ever, I am missing my physical connections with the rest of the family.
With endless love, we say goodbye and send you off with our fondest memories and wishes for what may come at the end of our physical journey. We raise our glasses to you and toast your memory, the legacy of your amazing family, with so many of us all over the globe, who would not be here without you. I hope we meet again in the next life.
