{"id":120714,"date":"2023-09-04T13:26:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T13:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=120714"},"modified":"2023-09-04T13:28:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T13:28:22","slug":"norah-roberts-a-letter-from-her-past-april-1995-by-michael-roberts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/norah-roberts-a-letter-from-her-past-april-1995-by-michael-roberts\/","title":{"rendered":"Norah Roberts: A Letter from Her Past, April 1995 – By Michael Roberts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norah Roberts: A Letter from Her Past, April 1995 – By Michael Roberts<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Source :\u00a0thuppahis<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

My sister Norah Roberts, I now realise, was a remarkable woman. Further elaborations along these lines will follow in a second \u201cMemoriam.\u201d The present display is via a Letter she sent to Fr Corera of the Vanareeth House for Elders run by the Sisters of Charity in Galle on the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0April 1995<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026. a copy of which has been preserved by Moninna Goonewardena of 15 Parawa Street, Fort, Galle.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The copy of the Letter below will be followed by a commentary on several facets touched on within the letter; while my Ode in Praise in a subsequent essay will present details on Norah Roberts and her difficult circumstances of total deafness from her 32\/33rd<\/sup>\u00a0years on earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Norah<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Norah<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Norah<\/a><\/p>\n

No. 15. A. First Avenue,<\/span>
\nKirilapone, Colombo 5<\/span>
\n15-4-95<\/strong><\/span>
\nDear Rev. Fr. Basil Correra<\/span>
\nA Happy Easter to you & God Loves you<\/span>
\n\u201cI love you too\u201d- as the good Pope sang & all cheered. Strange how Good Friday & Sinhala New Year have fallen on the same day? Is God helping Peace & Unity \u2014\u00a0No separate colours all white \u2014 \u2018all one united in peace. I look forward to Chandrika\u2019s Peace in the North.<\/span>
\nI am now at home recuperating for a month after my Cataract Eye operation. \u00a0Do you know\u00a0I visited Galle\u00a0for 5 days before the op<\/strong>\u00a0to have a last look-see & meet old acquaintances: Bulalil Amma, Kandhawathie(?) old servant Siddhawathie(?) Catherine (?) & others. Sorry I missed out on a visit to you \u2013 a long walk and little spare time.<\/span>
\nI stayed with Moninna Goonewardena \u2013 she refused to accept board. I visited theold Portuguese Kataluwa Walauwa \u2014 a little disappointing \u2014 nearer Weligama\u00a0than Galle.I was just interrupted by Sister Francesca & Simeon a kind Church assistant who came to give me communion \u2013 blessed sacrament I missed on Palm Sunday & Good Friday \u2013 so kind. It warmed my heart \u2013 Sister too had her cataracts removed- But all smiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am dejected \u2013 often wish to die these days. The good old caring days are over- I have to visit the hospital again in a month \u2013 to test eyes \u2013 also for glasses. Pray I may be able to read dear Father. The op was very painful.<\/span>
\nI had to keep reminding myself it was Lent so managed not to scream with the pain \u2013 some(?) 50 or so needles pricked into the eye- stitches many more(?). Last time\u00a0first op I did not feel anything after the 4th painful injection. This time I was conscious & felt all through.<\/span>
\nCatherine wrote that Fr. Del was transferred: Galle\u2019s loss another\u2019s gain. there is nothing like kindness to bring us closer to God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Violet not too well. Blames every little\u00a0thing I do \u2013 all misjudge my actions.\u00a0 All imagine I am angry when I am not. Perhaps I should leave. But just now I need help \u2013 need Sheila to take me to Hospital & because of my book \u2013 My work here \u2013 Received one nice cheque 71,000\/ banked.\u00a0 I look forward for an Easter Cheque.<\/span>
\n[A] Few errors have to be corrected in a possible 2nd edition. Have you received my book\u00a0Father?\u00a0 I told Mr. Ranil Kapuge new Aloysian Principal to buy a copy for the\u00a0College- expensive Rs 900\/= from Lake House. Bookseller gets 40%.<\/span>
\nHow are you Father? Are your right-hand\u00a0fingers(?) stiff? Is it difficult to write? Please reply if\u00a0you can.<\/span>
\nAll the best for the United(?)New Year.<\/span>
\nPeace & Unity. God speed.<\/span>
\nSincerely<\/span>
\nNorah R<\/span>
\n[PS] Can\u2019t see properly yet. So hav\u2019nt checked this letter.<\/span>
\nExcuse errors .<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Norah<\/a><\/p>\n

TWO: Commentary by Michael Roberts, 15 August 2020<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite her deafness Norah Roberts was clearly alive to the vital political events occurring around her and others in Sri Lanka.\u00a0She begins with a deeply felt expression of hope for ongoing peace in Sri Lanka (appropriately at Easter) in the light of the peace talks that were then taking place between Chandrika Kumaratunga\u2019s government and the LTTE.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

These peace talks had begun in September 1994 and by the 10th<\/sup>\u00a0April 1995 had entered the Fourth Round with Charles Abeysekera, Dr. Jayadeva Uyangoda and Bishop Kenneth Fernando joining Kusumsiri Balapatabendige and Lionel Fernando in President Kumaratunga\u2019s band of trusted hands \u2013thereby making\u00a0 up a team that included two leftist intellectuals in Abeysekera and Uyangoda. \u00a0Yes, the fourth round of talks \u2026. and implicitly, a hopeful and consolidating stage.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Norah\u2019s letter, note, was written on the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0April.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Boom! Wham! Bham! Blast!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Late at night on the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0April a team of Tiger frogmen sank two SL Navy attack craft, via an underwater mission \u2013 a suicide mission in fact.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cSooraya\u201d and \u201cRanasuru\u201d were gunboats in the attack class squadron and in Wikipedia the laconic summary notes that the LTTE goal was \u201cto disable the larger fleet units of the navy, thereby limiting its ability to effectively patrol the coastal waters around areas controlled by the LTTE allowing them to smuggle arms and ammunition from the intentional waters of the Indian Ocean.\u201d[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Here, then,\u00a0we see an instance of fascist perfidy and realpolitik that is on the same moral scale as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th<\/sup>\u00a0December 1941<\/strong>\u00a0at a stage when the Japanese ambassador in Washington Kichisaburo Nomura and the US Secy-of-State Cordell Hull were participating in multiple meetings with the objective of resolving the political issues in US-Japan relations.[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I was resident in Delhi att his point of time pursuing comparative material on communal violence in the Indian subcontinent, as one aspect of my search work on pogroms and riots in Sri Lanka. I had scheduled a meeting with N. Ram of\u00a0The Hindu<\/em>\u00a0who happened to be visiting the Indian capital in April with the intent of garnering pictorial material on such violence. That project was, now, effectively, torpedoed! My meeting with Ram invariably focused on events in Sri Lanka and the impact of the LTTE declaration of war.<\/span><\/p>\n

This background circumstance in my own biographical journey renders Norah\u2019s hopeful remark, written before that act of fascist Tiger perfidy, all the more meaningful.\u00a0Norah Roberts was an engaged Sri Lankan, far more so than many others in her sisterhood and brotherhood.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are, of course, other threads in her letter<\/span><\/p>\n